Mr. Damian Amiruddin

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Chemistry Ph.D. Candidate, Stony Brook University

Ultrapure water production is vital for sustainable green hydrogen production by electrolysis. The current industrial process to generate ultrapure water involves energy-intensive processes, such as reverse osmosis. This project demonstrates a facile method to produce ultrapure water from simulated seawater using a low capital cost and low energy consuming membrane distillation (MD) approach that is driven by the waste heat from photovoltaic (PV) panels. To optimize the PV-MD operation, modeling efforts to design a multilayered MD system were carried out. The results were used to guide the construction of several prototype devices using different materials. The best performing PV-MD device, containing evaporation and condensation regions made from steel sheets and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes, can produce high purity water with conductivity less than 40 mS and flux higher than 100 g/m2hr, which is suitable for typical electrolyzer use.

Mr. Damian Amiruddin is a third-year PhD candidate at Stony Brook University and is engaged in cutting-edge research that lies at the intersection of chemical engineering, materials science, and sustainability. His current research thrusts encompass two vital areas: Ultrapure Water for Electrolysis and Isothermal Membrane-based Air Dehumidification for Hydrogen Separation.

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