UFTO first noted this unique water purification technology in January 1995 (see below to review the basic concept), and again in March 1997, when a license was issued to a commercial firm. The company, Far West, has made tremendous progress, and now appears to stand ready to move out in a big way with the commercial development of Capacitive Deionization Technology (CDT). (The name CDI belongs to something else, so the company has adopted the new shorthand CDT.)

The process operates at low voltage and low pressure, does not require membranes or pumps (and so is less sensitive to corrosives), and can operate at high water temperature (so, for example, boiler water can be treated hot). The technology is modular and scalable, with additional capacity or greater filtration accomplished by simply adding more elements, either in parallel or series.

The technology itself has been dramatically improved, with one tenth the weight and one-twentieth the cost of the original devices. New designs don’t require the aerogels to be supported on a substrate, and a clever technique maintains separation with essentially no structural elements.

The business prospects are strengthened by the arrival of a new president with the right experience and connections to restructure the company, raise money, and move forward aggressively with manufacturing, demonstration projects, and joint venture and marketing agreements worldwide.

Initial focus areas are ultrapure process water, ground and waste water treatment, contaminant removal/concentration, and brackish water treatment for drinking water. There is also a demonstration project underway on utility boiler water. Seawater desalination is also a priority.

A prominent story in “Developments to Watch” in Business Week appeared in the March 15 issue, and the response has been tremendous.

The company website at http://www.farwestgroup.com has a vu-graph presentation with considerable detail about the technology and applications, and a business plan is also available on request.

Far West is a public company (FWST), as an OTC-Bulletin Board stock. (There has been a sudden rise in volume and price yesterday and today!) The company is raising $10 Million through a preferred stock offering.

Contact: Dallas Talley, President
520-293-9778 farwestcdi@aol.com

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

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.

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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.