Electro-desalination: State-of-the-art and prospective

Desalination as a vital technology for removing salts from saline water, is widely employed in municipal water supply, wastewater treatment, saltwater desalination, and chemical purification. The membrane-based desalination technology now offers a cost-effective alternative to other techniques for generating freshwater. Electro-desalination takes advantage of numerous membrane or electrode materials for desalination under electric-driven force, and performs long-term stability and effectiveness for desalinating saline water with various salinity and compositions. Among all the electro-desalination procedures, electrodialysis (ED) and membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) are two primary forms. This review gives the state-of-the-art in electro-desalination, particularly, the significant applications for ED and MCDI procedures were explored and compared in terms of energy efficiency and consumption. Future challenges and possibilities for electro-desalination applications were discussed and foretasted.