Comparison of water desalination technology by electrodialysis and reverse osmosis

Abstract

The main problem of the modern world is the difficulty of obtaining high-quality water necessary to meet the needs and improve the quality of life of people. Many territories of our country have large reserves of groundwater with a huge mineralization of effluents that are not used in water supply, due to the large content of various impurities and salts in the water. To use this water in artesian water supply, it is necessary to remove salts from it. Among the many methods of desalination of wastewater, we compare two methods – electrodialysis and reverse osmosis, competing for the opportunity to prevail in the modern energy market. The most important criteria for comparing the effectiveness of water desalination methods are: preliminary preparation of the liquid; how often the membranes fail during operation of the equipment; energy savings of processes, reduction of current and capital costs for water filtration. Electrodialysis is a chemical process in which the number of electrolytes in a liquid changes under the influence of an electric current, more often this method is used at normal atmospheric pressure in industrial plants. Reverse osmosis is a method of desalting liquid to obtain purified water for the national economy.