Intensive courses on Desalination Engineering: Electromembrane Processes: Principles and Practical Applications

The seminar is directed towards professionals and students with the objective of providing a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art of electromembrane processes, their practical application and technical relevance. Electrodialysis is a mature process that has been used on a large scale for desalination of brackish water for more than half a century. Other separation processes utilizing ionexchange membranes such as continuous electrodeionization, bipolar membrane water dissociation or diffusion dialysis are more recent developments which show a large number of interesting applications.

The literature covering these processes and their applications is extremely fragmented and contained in a number of different scientific journals and in various patents. This makes it difficult to gain an overview of ion-exchange membranes and their applications.

The objective of this seminar is to provide a reasonably comprehensive treatment of the most relevant aspects of ion-exchange membranes and their application in relevant separation processes. The subject is covered in six chapters. To begin with, a very general overview of relevant electromembrane processes including electrolysis and fuel cells is given. Then some electrochemical and thermodynamic fundamentals relevant to electrodialysis and related processes are briefly discussed. The preparation and characterization of ion-exchange membranes is described in the next. This is followed by a discussion of the various processes as unit operations and the design of systems and equipment. Finally, the case history of presently operating industrial plants is described and future applications of electrodialysis and related processes as well as research needs are pointed out.

Lecturer Prof. Dr. Heiner Strathmann