Electrical resistance and transport numbers of ion-exchange membranes used in electrodialytic soil remediation

Electrodialytic soil remediation is a recently developed method to decontaminate heavy metal polluted soil using ion-exchange membranes. In this method one side of the ion-exchange membrane is in direct contact with the polluted soil. It is of great importance to know if this contact with the soil causes damage to the membrane. This work presents the result from transport number and electrical resistance measurements done on four sets of ion-exchange membranes (Ionics, Inc. CR67 HMR412 cation-exchange membranes and Ionics, Inc. AR204 SXZR anion-exchange membranes), which have been used in four different electrodialytic soil remediation experiments. The experiments showed that after the use in electrodialytic soil remediation, the ion-exchange membranes had transport numbers in the same magnitude as new membranes. The electrical resistance for six membranes did not differ from that of new membranes, whereas two membranes showed a slightly increased resistance.