Ngai Yin Yip

Dr. Ngai Yin Yip is the Lavon Duddleson Krumb Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia and co-founder of Trident Desalination, a startup commercializing temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE) desalination. In a conversation with Dr. Dovina Qu, his licensing officer at Columbia Technology Ventures, Dr. Yip discusses his lab’s research into new ways to remove salt from hypersaline solutions to make that water usable again, as well as ways to recover precious resources from waste streams. He explains why traditional methods of making usable water, typically via condensation, are so energy intensive, and why his approaches are much cheaper, less resource hungry, and more flexible. He shares why this is critically important to lower the environmental impact in industrial production and mining, as well as to help ensure clean water supplies in places like Arizona and Nevada that aren’t near the ocean.