Capacitive Carbon Electrodes for Electrodialysis Reversal Applications

Electrodialysis (ED) processes require the application of an electric field in order to drive the migration of ions and cause demineralization. The conventional approach is to utilize metal electrodes (stainless steel for the cathode and noble metals for the anode for ED, and noble metal electrodes for electrodialysis reversal EDR) and perform water electrolysis at the surface of the electrodes to create the electric field. The byproducts of water electrolysis, i.e. acid, base, hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine gases, can cause system complexity and extra cost. To address these issues a new capacitive carbon electrode was developed to be used in electrodialysis reversal stacks which mitigates these issues.