Comparative Study of Membrane Capacitive Deionization Technology in Total Dissolved Solids from Water

Growing human population, severe neglect and over-exploitation of water resources has made water, a scarce commodity. The whole world is concerned for the availability of clean and potable water. Most of the available water is saline and is not potable. Water supplies are running out of the actual water needs of the society. We are now in need of finding cost competitive newer technologies for reclaiming this valuable life-sustaining liquid. Membrane capacitive deionization is one of those prominent technologies which assure to be more efficient with higher water recovery and less power consumption. This comparative study was done to evaluate the salt removal efficiency of Membrane Capacitive Deionization over reverse osmosis. The pilot plant (CapDI) manufactured by Voltea (Netherland) was provided by In Now India Pvt. Ltd for carrying out this study. It was found that Capacitive deionization technique is very efficient in removal of low salinity feed water sources. Energy consumption is quite low approximately only 20 to 30% of energy utilized by reverse osmosis. And flow recovery rate of CapDI plant is also high than reverse osmosis plant.