Advances in electrodeionization technology for ionic separation - A review

Electrodeionization (EDI), which combines electrodialysis (ED) and conventional ion-exchange (IX), is a mature process which has been applied since more than twenty years on commercial use for the production of ultrapure water (UPW). Eliminating chemical regeneration is the main reason for its commercial success. The increase in acceptance of EDI technology has led to an installation of very large plant as the commercial state of the art that produces 1,500 m³/h of water for high pressure steam boiler. More recently, EDI system has found a number of new interesting applications in wastewater treatment, biotechnology industry, and other potential field. Along with further growth and wider applications, the development of stack construction and configuration are also become a concern. In this paper, the principle of EDI process is described and its recent developments, commercial scale, and various applications are pointed out.