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. Electrodesalination takes advantage of numerous membrane or electrode materials for desalination under electricdriven 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 electrodesalination, 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 electrodesalination applications were discussed and foretasted.