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Margaret Lumley, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., shows the small-scale experiments that are being done to remove sodium chloride from water in the lab at the UW-Madison chemistry building in Madison.
In a UW-Madison chemistry department lab, an array of roughly 26 beakers test a local startup’s device concept that could help solve Wisconsin’s salt pollution problem in a renewable way.
The beakers contain a high purity wastewater salt solution, as well as ChloBis Water-patented electrodes, which are able to extract the salt from the water while generating electricity, said founding CEO Margaret Lumley. ChloBis Water, a desalination company with about three employees, was launched in 2021 out of her deep-seated desire to preserve the environment.
Using the energy-efficient process the startup has developed, the extracted salt can also be converted into chemicals like bleach and caustic soda (a chemical that unblocks drains), Lumley said.
Devices that are attached to each beaker feed data on to two computers that display how each electrode is performing — the experiments are a precursor to a battery idea Lumley said could serve not only the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, but wastewater treatment centers and food processing plants across the state in their efforts to reduce their salt output.
Dohwan Nam, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., shows an electrode that is being used in an experiment to take sodium chloride out of water in the lab at the UW-Madison chemistry building.
Reductions are needed because the chemicals that make up salt — sodium and chloride — are harmful to Wisconsin’s freshwater ecosystems, according to the Department of Natural Resources. And current processes for removing salt from water use a lot of energy and create waste, said Kathleen Lake, pollution prevention manager at the Madison sewer district, adding that’s what makes ChloBis’ concept game-changing.
Recent DNR studies have shown a “steep” increase in chloride loads over the years. In the early 2000s, the DNR measured about 600,000 tons of chloride annually. By 2018, that number increased to 800,000 tons per year, leading to over 40 lakes and streams being designated as “impaired by high salt concentrations.”
The increased chloride is partly due to the road salting that prevents your vehicle from sliding during the winter, the DNR said.
Dohwan Nam, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., in the lab where experiments to remove sodium chloride from water are being done, at the UW-Madison chemistry building in Madison.
But the problem also stems from the water softeners that salt your shower stream, as well as chemical fertilizers, according to the DNR.
Chloride, which is toxic to various freshwater species, can flow into surface water through snowmelt runoff, and waste from water softeners gets discharged into septic and wastewater systems that can reach shallow groundwater. Fertilizers that farms use can additionally get infiltrated into Wisconsin’s freshwater bodies.
The battery would include several stacked electrodes inside a container, ChloBis Water co-founder and research scientist Do-Hwan Nam explained, adding that the electrodes are made of bismuth, a type of metal that’s nontoxic to humans and cheap to purchase for the startup.
A graphic depicts the ChloBis Water battery concept.
Nam, also an assistant scientist for UW-Madison, received his doctorate in materials science and engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Lumley, who herself has a doctorate in materials chemistry from UW-Madison, envisions that the battery could eventually hook into the water treatment infrastructure that plants already have in what she called a “plug and play” approach. She credits Nam for inventing ChloBis Water’s battery concept.
The idea has received $256,000 from the National Science Foundation, as well as $75,000 out of the federal Small Business Innovation Research program in collaboration with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and Madison’s Center for Technology Commercialization. The startup received its patent through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Margaret Lumley and Dohwan Nam, co-founders of ChloBis Water Inc., are conducting small-scale experiments to remove sodium chloride from water.
ChloBis Water is also supported through a fellowship program called Activate, Lumley said, which provides company founders with stipends, mentorship and entrepreneurial education. Activate gave ChloBis Water $100,000 for its research efforts.
The next step in the experiment is to test the electrodes using real water versus a salt solution, Lumley said, and in larger beakers. Subsequent moves will be building a prototype of the battery, and making sure ChloBis’ technology is compatible with the infrastructure of wastewater treatment and food processing plants, she said.
Ultimately, it is Lumley’s hope that ChloBis will find a manufacturing facility somewhere in the area to hold its commercial battery units that the startup intends to sell. She also wants to create a strong board of directors.
“I was raised by an entrepreneur,” she said of her motivations for entering the water desalination industry. “My dad has a wind energy startup. I spent a lot of summers interning for him. Having grown up in California, too, I was always very aware of water scarcity … seeing the ocean but never having enough water.”
Dohwan Nam, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., shows an electrode that is being used in an experiment to take sodium chloride out of water.
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Emilie Heidemann is a multimedia journalist for the Wisconsin State Journal. She joined the team in August 2021 to primarily cover economic issues, tech and businesses in the greater Madison area.
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Margaret Lumley, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., shows the small-scale experiments that are being done to remove sodium chloride from water in the lab at the UW-Madison chemistry building in Madison.
Dohwan Nam, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., shows an electrode that is being used in an experiment to take sodium chloride out of water in the lab at the UW-Madison chemistry building.
Dohwan Nam, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., in the lab where experiments to remove sodium chloride from water are being done, at the UW-Madison chemistry building in Madison.
A graphic depicts the ChloBis Water battery concept.
Margaret Lumley and Dohwan Nam, co-founders of ChloBis Water Inc., are conducting small-scale experiments to remove sodium chloride from water.
Dohwan Nam, co-founder of ChloBis Water Inc., shows an electrode that is being used in an experiment to take sodium chloride out of water.
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