Electrically Driven Membrane Processes

This text is written to all chemical engineering students who are participating in courses about membrane processes and membrane technology. Membrane processes find applications in almost all kinds of industries as one or more down stream purification/separation processes:

- Chemical industries

- Pharmaceutical industries

- Food industries

- Dairy industries

- Wastewater treatment

- Etc...

Because of the wide spectrum of applications, knowledge about membrane processes is of great importance and each engineering student who chooses membranes as the main path of interests has a world of opportunities in coming career.

For reading and understanding this text you are supposed to have the basic skills in mathematics and chemistry in general. Thus this text is for students who have completed the basic engineering introduction courses or for industry staff who wants to get a quick introduction to this field. This text gives an introduction to principles behind electrically driven membrane processes in general and electrodialysis in particular. Relevant theory will be presented together with terms widely used in the world of membrane technology.

After the presentation of certain equations the SI-units will be given in order to give the reader an easy overview of the different terms and parameters in that particular equation and why these terms are included in the equation. Relevant examples will be included in order to show how the described theory can be applied in practice.

I alone am responsible for any misprints or errors and I will be grateful to receive any critics and suggestions for improvement.

November 2006

Søren Prip Beier

1. Introduction
2. Electrodialysis
   1. Basic concept
   2. Critical current and critical current density
   3. Desalination degree
   4. Current efficiency
   5. Energy requirements
   6. Anti-fouling mechanism
3. Summary