ELECTRODIALYSIS WATER SPLITTING TECHNOLOGY

Membrane water splitting technology is a general purpose unit operation for converting water soluble salts to their corresponding acids and bases. The process uses bipolar ion exchange membranes in conjunction with convertional cation and/or anion exchange membranes and the separation and rearrangement of ions is effected by a direct current driving force. The absence of electrochemical transformations enables the water splitting process to be energy efficient, as well as permits direct processing of oxidation sensitive chemicals and fluoride salts. The technology has many applications in the areas of pollution control/resource recovery and chemical processing. This paper provides a general background on the process itself, some techo-economic considerations in design, as well as a review of some of the major applications.