Process Intensification of Electrodialysis through the Investigation and Elimination of Maldistribution
Authors: Ledingham Jack , Howse Jonathan , Campbell Alasdair , Tyndale-Biscoe Elliot , Sedransk Campbell Kyra 
Published: February 2024

Often, advancements in electrochemical engineering processes stem from improvements at the microscale and in fundamental understanding. However, there is often much insight to be gained from identifying engineering challenges associated with process operation. Electrodialysis (ED) is an emerging electro separation technology which utilises a stack of ion selective membranes and an electric field to drive salt transfer between streams. Industrial implementation and intensification of ED is currently hindered by operational efficiencies being far from ideal. In this work, we explore a system-wide approach to investigate operational inefficiencies resulting from maldistribution in the flow between ED channels.

Through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, it was shown that maldistribution is prevalent in ED. Further, a simplified analytical model demonstrated that the degree of maldistribution will be far more severe upon scale-up. In order to examine the effects of maldistribution on ED performance, transport models were built. These demonstrated that the limiting current density, and thus the maximum salt flux, was reduced by as much as 23% for a standard lab-scale stack. This will be much more significant upon scaleup, and therefore, overcoming maldistribution in ED can have significant benefits for process intensification. Validation of this was conducted through particle image velocimetry (PIV) and desalination experiments.

A glass cell was constructed for PIV experiments with an identical geometry to that used for CFD simulations. A camera and telecentric lens was focussed on the channel centreline, and red and blue LEDs were sequentially pulsed. This light was scattered off particles in water flowing through the cell and collected by a single exposure image. The particle velocities were calculated from the superimposed red and blue images and a flow field was constructed. The experimentally determined flow field had excellent agreement with that found from CFD simulations, validating the existence of maldistribution in ED.

Desalination experiments were conducted on a PC64004 ED stack operating in a steady state mode. The degree of maldistribution was independently altered by changing the flow rate while ensuring that the overall salt convective flux was constant. The LCD was subsequently measured by collecting current-voltage curves. results showed excellent consistency with the transport model, thereby validating the relationship between increased maldistribution and a lower LCD.

In summary, in this work we have demonstrated and validated the presence of maldistribution in ED, as well as the significant detrimental effect it has on the upper limits of process intensification. Further, we have demonstrated the benefits of investigating system-wide inefficiencies in addition to fundamental phenomena. Future research will focus on developing methods to overcome maldistribution in ED.

Figure 1