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Membrane and Desalination Technologies - TCE Moodle Website

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<strong>Desalination</strong> of Seawater by Thermal Distillation <strong>and</strong> Electrodialysis <strong>Technologies</strong> 541<br />

membranes’ surfaces can be cleaned. St<strong>and</strong>ard EDR operates for 15 min on each polarity.<br />

Electrodeionization (EDI) is a modification of conventional ED systems with IX resins<br />

installed in the ED stacks. The resins reduce the electrical resistance of the unit <strong>and</strong> the<br />

direct current potential splits water into hydrogen <strong>and</strong> hydroxyl ions that continuously<br />

regenerate a portion of the IX resins. EDI is particularly suited for the production of ultrapure<br />

water.<br />

3.2. Mechanisms<br />

The working mechanism of ED is demonstrated in Fig. 12.12. The IX membranes are<br />

arranged alternately with an anion-selective membrane followed by a cation-selective membrane.<br />

A cell is a space that is bounded by the two different membranes; it is arranged as anion<br />

exchange membrane, space, <strong>and</strong> cation exchange membrane. A unit cell or cell pair is made<br />

up of two cells. The ion-depleted cell is used for the passage of freshwater (the freshwater<br />

channel or desalted water channel), whereas the ion-concentrated cell is used for the passage<br />

of brine (the brine channel). The cells alternate between the fresh water channel <strong>and</strong> the brine<br />

channel. Each cell is connected by its own feed/product stream <strong>and</strong> brine stream. The unit<br />

cells <strong>and</strong> electrodes are arranged horizontally or vertically <strong>and</strong> the entire unit is called a stack.<br />

An ED system requires huge amounts of direct current (DC); a rectifier is usually used to<br />

transform the alternating current (AC) to DC.<br />

The feed solution containing both positive <strong>and</strong> negative ions enters in a parallel path<br />

through all the cells, where an electric potential is maintained across the electrodes. This<br />

causes the ions to migrate to their respective electrodes. The positively charged cations in the<br />

A K A K<br />

Demineralized solution<br />

Ion concentrated liquid<br />

Anode Cathode<br />

A anion exchange membrane, permeable to anions<br />

K cation exchange membrane, permeable to cations<br />

Concentration stream<br />

Fig. 12.12. Demonstration of mechanism of ED process.

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