Application of Capacitive Deionisation in water desalination: A review

• Published in: Desalination 2014-06, Vol.342, p.3-15
• Main Authors: AlMarzooqi, Faisal A., Al Ghaferi, Amal A., Saadat, Irfan, Hilal, Nidal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capacitive Deionisation; Carbon; Desalination; Electric fields; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Graphene; Low cost; Membrane Capacitive Deionisation; Sea water
• ISSN: 0011-9164; 1873-4464
• DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2014.02.031

This manuscript spans over 180years of ideas, discoveries, inventions, breakthroughs and research in Capacitive Deionisation (CDI) and Membrane CDI (MCDI) desalination. Starting with the first discovery of the dissociation of ions in solution under an electric field by M. Faraday (1833), through the pioneering work of carbon aerogel flow through capacitors by J. Farmer's group (1996) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), to the utilization of novel graphene and carbon nanotube (CNT) materials as electrodes, the CDI and MCDI technologies are progressively making its path to the desalination industry. Through this review various deficiencies of this technology have been identified, first and far most was the need for low cost and efficient electrode materials. The review identified that a low cost and high efficiency electrode capable of processing high salinity (seawater) stream still does not exists and is considered important if the technology is to make it to the industry. Furthermore, the lack of long term reliability, operation demonstrations and experience meant that information about scaling and fouling are rather scarce. Taking a step further, no comprehensive environmental assessment such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been performed yet. •We review 180years of breakthroughs and research in Capacitive Deionisation (CDI).•The critical deficiency in CDI is the need of low cost/high efficiency electrodes.•The CDI complex electrosorption process requires a comprehensive and robust model.•No comprehensive environmental assessment is done yet for CDI.•The CDI field lacks long term reliability and operation, pilot scale demonstration.