Electrodeionization (EDI)

What is EDI?

High purity water production has traditionally used a combination of membrane separation and
ion exchange processes. EDI is a process which combines semi-impermeable membrane
technology with ion-exchange media to provide a high efficiency demineralization process.
Electro dialysis employ electrical current and specially-prepared membranes which are semi
permeable to ions based on their charge, electrical current, and ability to reduce the ions based to
their charge. Through electro dialysis an electrical potential transports and segregates charged
aqueous species. The electrical current is used to continuously regenerate the resin, eliminating
the need for periodical regeneration.

The EDI process produces industrial process water of very high purity, using less than 95% of
the chemical products used in the conventional ion exchange processes. With EDI system
membranes and electricity replace the million gallons of acid and caustic chemicals that the old
processes required daily.

How does it work?

An EDI stack has the basic structure of a deionization chamber. The chamber contains a ion
exchange resin, packed between a cationic exchange membrane and a anionic exchange
membrane. Only the ions can pass through the membrane, the water is blocked.
When flow enters the resin filled diluiting compartment, several processes are set in motion.
Strong ions are scavenged out of the feed stream by the mixed bed resins. Under the influence of
the strong direct current field applied across the stack of components, charged ions are pulled off
the resin and drawn towards the respective, oppositely-charged electrodes. In this way these
charged strong-ion species are continuously removed and transferred in to the adiacent
concentrating compartments.
As the ions go towards the membrane, they can pass through the concentration chamber (see
figure) but they cannot reach the electrode. They are blocked by the contiguous membrane, that
contains a resin with the same charge.
As the strong ions are removed from the process stream, the conductivity of the stream becomes
quite low. The strong, applied electrical potential splits water at the surface of the resin beads,
producing hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. These act as continuous regenerating agents of the ion-
exchange resin. These regenerated resins allow ionization of neutral or weakly-ionized aqueous
species such as carbon dioxide or silica. Ionization is followed by removal through the direct
current and the ion exchange membranes.

The ionization reactions occurring in the resin in hydrogen or hydroxide forms for the removal
of weakly ionized compounds are listed below:
CO2 + OH- ==> HCO3-
HCO3- + OH- ==> CO32-
SiO2 + OH- ==> HSiO3-
H3BO3 + OH- ==> B(OH)4-
NH3 + H+ ==> NH4+

Applications

EDI is useful for any application that requires constant and economic removal of water
impurities without using dangerous chemical. Some examples are:

 Reuse of residual water in food and beverages industry

 Chemical production
 Biotechnology
 Electronics
 Cosmetic
 Laboratories
 Pharmaceutical industry
 Boiler Feed Water
 Reduction of ionizable SiO2 and TOC (total organic carbon)

Since installation EDI units perform quite reliably, providing the customers with high purity
production water for either power plant boiler feed or microchip rinse water. The water produced
has met or exceeded customer high-purity water specifications. In addition, when a diluite
stream cleaning was required as result of fouling, product quality was completely recovered.

Advantages

As a substitute for the more traditional ion-exchange process, EDI brings advances in both
energy and operating expenses to the high purity water treatment train. By eliminating the
periodic regeneration requirement of ion exchange resin, environmental benefits are also realized
by avoiding the handling and processing of acid and caustic chemicals brought to the site.

Some of the advantages of the EDI as opposed to the conventional systems of ionic interchange
are:

 Simple and continuous operation

 Chemicals for regeneration completely eliminated
 Cost effective operation and maintenance
 Low power consumption
 Non pollution, safety and reliablility
 It requires very few automatic valves or complex control sequences that need supervision
by an operator
 It requires little space
 It produces high pure water in a constant flow
 It provides complete removal of dissolved inorganic particles
 In combination with reverse osmosis pre-treatment, it removes more than 99.9% of ions
from the water

Disadvantages

 EDI cannot be used for water having hardness higher than 1, since the calcium carbonate
would create a scab in the camera of the concentrated one, limiting the operation
 It requires purification pretreatment
 Carbon Dioxide will freely pass through an RO membrane, dissociating and raising the
conductivity of water. Any ionic species formed from the carbon dioxide gas will lower
the outlet resistivity of the water produced by EDI. The management of CO2 in water is
typically handled in one or two ways: the pH of the water can be adjusted to allow the
RO membrane to rejuect the ionic species or the carbon dioxied can be removed from the
water using a strip gas.

More info on EDI units

Related technologies

Ion exchange

Reverse osmosis