Electrodialysis Applications in Wastewater Treatment for Environmental Protection and Resources Recovery: A Systematic Review on Progress and Perspectives

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper presents a comprehensive review of studies on electrodialysis (ED) applications in wastewater treatment, outlining the current status and the future prospect. ED is a membrane process of separation under the action of an electric field, where ions are selectively transported across ion-exchange membranes. ED of both conventional or unconventional fashion has been tested to treat several waste or spent aqueous solutions, including effluents from various industrial processes, municipal wastewater or salt water treatment plants, and animal farms. Properties such as selectivity, high separation efficiency, and chemical-free treatment make ED methods adequate for desalination and other treatments with significant environmental benefits. ED technologies can be used in operations of concentration, dilution, desalination, regeneration, and valorisation to reclaim wastewater and recover water and/or other products, e.g., heavy metal ions, salts, acids/bases, nutrients, and organics, or electrical energy. Intense research activity has been directed towards developing enhanced or novel systems, showing that zero or minimal liquid discharge approaches can be techno-economically affordable and competitive. Despite few real plants having been installed, recent developments are opening new routes for the large-scale use of ED techniques in a plethora of treatment processes for wastewater.</jats:p>

Influence of Wooden Sawdust Treatments on Cu(II) and Zn(II) Removal from Water

“…High membrane cost, requirement of resin fouling, resin regeneration [22,23] Coagulation and flocculation Settling and dewatering of sludge High cost, large consumption of chemicals [24,25] Membrane filtration [7,30] The majority of these methods [7,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] are expensive, ineffective in certain concentrations, or time-consuming, and adsorption is limited by the cost of the adsorption material [1,[6][7][8][9]31,32]. For these reasons, the choice of sorbent is crucial for the development of a simple, efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly water purification method [33,34].…”

“…The majority of these methods [ 7 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] are expensive, ineffective in certain concentrations, or time-consuming, and adsorption is limited by the cost of the adsorption material [ 1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 31 , 32 ]. For these reasons, the choice of sorbent is crucial for the development of a simple, efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly water purification method [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Neutralization of Industrial Water by Electrodialysis

“…In many industrial and agricultural processes (washing water treatment, industrial wastewater treatment, caustic soda preparation, chlorine production, whey processing, and water preparation for use in agriculture and water supply systems), liquid treatment systems need to be developed to regulate pH [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”

The Acid–Base Flow Battery: Sustainable Energy Storage via Reversible Water Dissociation with Bipolar Membranes

“…The acid–base flow battery (ABFB) can be considered as a modification of the concentration gradient flow battery [ 13 ], which relies on two opposite processes, i.e., electrodialysis (ED) and reverse electrodialysis (RED). Electrodialysis [ 14 , 15 ] exploits electric energy to desalinate a feed stream (typically brackish water). In conventional ED an electric field is applied over a membrane stack consisting of alternating anion- and cation-exchange membranes (AEMs and CEMs) that, by selective ion transport, separate the feed solution into a concentrate and a diluate stream, thus creating salinity gradients over the membranes.…”