Electrodialysis brackish water desalination

M. Hamada, Brackish Water Desalination by Electrodialysis, Desalination Water... 

Several other potential applications of electrodialysis in wastewater treatment systems which have been studied on a laboratory scale are reported in the literature. In most of these applications the average plant capacity, however, is considerably lower than that in brackish water desalination or table salt production. 

Ortiz JM, Exposito E, Gallud F, Garcfa-Garcfa V, Montiel V and Aldaz A (2006), Photovoltaic electrodialysis system for brackish water desalination modeling of global process , / Membrane Sd, 274,138-149. 

Potable Water RO and NF both play a major role in providing potable water, defined either by the WHO criterion of <1000 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS) or the U.S. EPA limit of 500 ppm TDS. RO is most prominent in the Middle East and on islands where potable-water demand has outstripped natural supply. A plant awaiting startup at Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia produces over 1 mVs of fresh water (see Table 22-17). Small units are found on ships and boats. Seawater RO competes with multistage flash distillation (MSF) and multieffect distillation (MED) (see Sec. 13 Distillation ). It is too expensive to compete with conventional civil supply (canals, pipelines, w ls) in most locations. Low-pressure RO and NF compete with electrodialysis for the desalination of brackish water. The processes overlap economically, but they are sufficiently different so that the requirements of the application often favor one over the others. 

As discussed by Pletcher 24, electrodialysis is an electrically driven membrane separation process. The main use of electrodialysis is in the production of drinking water by the desalination of sea-water or brackish water. Another large-scale application is in the production of sodium chloride for table salt, the principal method in Japan, with production exceeding 106 tonne per annum. 

Electromembrane processes such as electrolysis and electrodialysis have experienced a steady growth since they made their first appearance in industrial-scale applications about 50 years ago [1-3], Currently desalination of brackish water and chlorine-alkaline electrolysis are still the dominant applications of these processes. But a number of new applications in the chemical and biochemical industry, in the production of high-quality industrial process water and in the treatment of industrial effluents, have been identified more recently [4]. The development of processes such as continuous electrodeionization and the use of bipolar membranes have further extended the range of application of electromembrane processes far beyond their traditional use in water desalination and chlorine-alkaline production. 

Z. Amor, B. Bariou, N. Mameri, M. Taky, S. Nicolas, A. Elmidaoui, Fluoride removal from brackish water by electrodialysis, Desalination 133 (2001) 215-223. 

Electrodialysis. In electrodialysis, separation of an aqueous stream is achieved through the use of synthetic membranes and an electric field. The membrane allows only one type of ions to pass through and may be chosen to remove other ions that move in the opposite direction. Therefore, it produces one stream rich in particular ions and another stream depleted of those ions. The two streams can be recycled or disposed off. This technique is commonly used in the desalination of brackish water. The other uses are in acid mine drainage treatment, the desalting of sewage-plant effluents, and in sulfite-liquor recovery. 

The first widespread use of polymeric membranes for separation applications dates back to the 1960-70S when cellulose acetate was cast for desalination of sea and brackish waters. Since then many new polymeric membranes came to the market for applications extended to ultrafiltration, miciofiltration, dialysis, electrodialysis and gas separations. So far ultrafiltration has been used in more diverse applications than any other membrane processes. The choice of membrane materials is dictated by the application environments, the separation mechanisms by which they operate and economic considerations. Table 1.4 lists some of the common organic polymeric materials for various membrane processes. They include, in addition to cellulose acetate, polyamides. 

K.S. Rajan, D.B. Boies, A.J. Casolo and J.I. Bregman, Inorganic ion-exchange membranes and their application to electrodialysis, Desalination, 1966, 1, 231-246 Electrodialytic demineralization of brackish waters by using inorganic ion-exchange membranes, Desalination, 1968, 5, 371-390. 

Z. Amor, S. Malki, M. Taky, B. Bariou, N. Mameri and A. Elmidaoui, Optimization of fluoride removal from brackish water by electrodialysis, Desalination, 1998, 120, 263 D. Cohen and H.M. Conrad, 65,000 GPD fluoride removal membrane system in Lakeland, California, Desalination, 1998, 117, 19 P. Brandhuber and G. Amy, Alternative methods for membrane filtration for drinking water, Desalination, 1998, 117, 1. 

The desalination of brackish water by electrodialysis and the electrolytic production of chlorine and caustic soda are the two most popular processes using ion-exchange membranes. There are, however, many other processes such as diffusion dialysis, Donnan dialysis, electrodialytic water dissociation, etc. which are rapidly gaining commercial and technical relevance. Furthermore ion-exchange membranes are vital elements in many energy storage and conversion systems such as batteries and fuel cells. 

The technically and economically most important electrodialytical process used for the separation of ionic components from an aqueous solution is conventional electrodialysis. The main application of electrodialysis is the desalination of brackish water. However, other uses, especially in the food, drug, and chemical process industry as well as in biotechnology and waste water treatment, have recently gained a broader interest. In its basic form electrodialysis can be utilized to perform several general types of separations, such as the separation and concentration of salts, acids, and bases from aqueous solutions, or the separation of monovalent ions from multiple charged components, or the separation of ionic compounds from uncharged molecules. 

Electrodialysis was developed first for the desalination of saline solutions, particularly brackish water. The production of potable water is still currently the most important industrial application of electrodialysis. But other applications, such as the treatment of industrial effluents [45], the production of boiler feed water, demineralization of whey [46], de-acidification of fruit juices [47], etc. are gaining increasing importance with large-scale industrial installations. An application of electrodialysis which is limited regionally to Japan has gained considerable commercial importance. This is the production of table salt from sea water. Diffusion dialysis and the use of bipolar membranes have significantly expanded the application of electrodialysis in recent years [48]. 

Electrodialysis (ED) is used to remove ionized substance from hquids through selective ion-permeable membranes. ED is the most widely commercialized electromembrane technology. Desalination of brackish water is the area of electrodialysis application with the largest number of installations. This chemical-free technology competes with reverse osmosis. Electrodialysis shows better resistance to fouling and scaling. It also has an economical advantage in desalination of low-salinity solutions [13]. Also, it should be kept in mind that because of small material consumption ED is the most environmental friendly process for solution desalination [14]. 

Electrodialysis 1. Desalination of brackish water 2. Production of table salt 3. Waste water treatment 4. Concentration of RO brines 5. Applications in the chemical, food, and drug industries... 

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