Systematic research on the bipolar membrane reverse electrodialysis performance and its application in electrodialysis desalination

In recent years, energy conversion and storage technologies have been a research hotspot. Bipolar membrane reverse electrodialysis (BMRED) is a safe and sustainable way to convert and store energy. This work focused on the BMRED performance in an open-loop configuration and its application in electrodialysis (ED) desalination. Firstly, effects of operating parameters on the BMRED performance were investigated. Results show that the performance of BMRED containing BP-1 membrane is better than that containing YDS-002 membrane, and the flow rate has no obvious effect on the performance of BMRED containing BP-1 membrane. Using HCl as the acid solution, less than 1.0 mol/L of acid and alkali solutions are fit for the BMRED performance. Secondly, BMRED was adopted to drive an ED desalination process to build an integrated system without external power supply. Results show that a higher desalination ratio is obtained through increasing the acid and alkali concentrations in BMRED, improving the BMRED and ED repeating units. This study suggests that BMRED has great application potential in the field of energy conversion and storage.