Desalination of Sea Water using Both Electrodialysis and Reverse Osmosis as Complementary Methods

Desalination process separates nearly salt free water from sea or brackish water. So, desalination process is becoming a solution for water scarcity all over the world. Two membrane methods of water desalination namely Electrodialysis (ED) and reverse osmosis (RO) are used in this study as complementary methods. The results show that both ED and RO can be used as integrated system. This system is economic and cost effective compared with each individual method provided using the ED system before the RO. In this study, it was approved that seawater can be used as it is an electrolyte. In a world faced with increased urbanization, population growth, climate change and degradation of water supplies, the importance of a reliable source of technology to provide fresh water emphasizes the importance of seawater desalination. Over the years a variety of seawater desalination methods have been developed throughout the world. The most common technologies available for desalination around the world are membrane reverse osmosis (RO), thermal distillation (TD) and Electrodialysis (ED).The shortage of drinking water is a major problem in the global. In these areas, it is essential to make use of water from underground reservoirs, most of which are over exploited and suffer from saline contamination given their proximity to the sea. The desalination of brackish water (salt water) is a means of obtaining low cost drinking water. Electrodialysis is a technique based in the transport of ions through selective membranes under the influence of an electrical field. This technique has proved its feasibility and high performance in the desalination of brackish water, the desalting of amino acids and other organic solutions, effluent treatment and or recycling of industrial process streams and salt production.