Subject: UFTO Note — Capacitive Deionization licensed
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 1997
From: Ed Beardsworth

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| ** UFTO ** Edward Beardsworth ** Consultant
| 951 Lincoln Ave. tel 415-328-5670
| Palo Alto CA 94301-3041 fax 415-328-5675
| http://www.ufto.com edbeards@ufto.com
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Livermore has given a license for CDI to a small water company in Tucson, AZ who’ve formed a subsidiary, Terra Research Corp., to pursue applications. The parent company is publicly traded OTC – Far West Group, which does water drilling and pumping and supplies.

They are looking for partners and investment capital. I have a summary of their business plan they sent me, which I can provide by email, snail mail or fax.

Let me know if you want a copy, and if you’d like to talk to them.

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Here is the UFTO writeup about CDI, when Livermore first announced it:

> January 1995
>
> Desalination and Waste Water Treatment by Capacitive Deionization (CDI)
>
> On December 20, 1994, LLNL announced a new way to deionize water. The
> huge effective surface area of carbon aerogels makes feasible the
> straightforward and well known process of capacitive deionization.
> Water containing salts, heavy metals or even radioactive isotopes flows
> through a series of electrochemical cells. An electric potential is
> applied across the electrodes, which attract the charged ions.
>
> The electrodes are metal plates coated with the aerogel, the high
> surface area of which allows them to absorb large quantities of ions,
> which are released later into a small volume “rinse” stream. CDI offers
> significant benefits over traditional deionization processes, such as
> reverse osmosis, ion exchange or evaporation. These involve high energy
> use, reliance on acids and bases, production of corrosive secondary
> wastes, and use of troublesome membranes. Compared with traditional
> desalination techniques, CDI could reduce the energy requirement by as
> much as 100-1000 times.
>
> Potential applications include: treatment of boiler water in power
> plants, electric residential water softeners, desalination of sea water,
> waste water treatment (i.e. volume reduction, notably of radioactive
> wastewater, by a factor of 1000), and more.
>
> A desktop test unit has been operating at LLNL for some time. A patent
> was filed in May 1994. Aerojet may become a supplier of the aerogel
> material, based on its experience with silicon aerogels.