Electro-osmotic pumping of sodium chloride solutions

Abstract

Electro-osmotic pumping (EOP) theory and its characteristics (transport numbers, brine concentration, current density, current efficiency, electro-osmotic coefficients, etc.) of Selemion AMV and CMV ion-exchange membranes were studied. The brine concentration increased with increase in current density and feed water concentration. Current efficiency was nearly constant in a wide range of current densities and feed water concentrations. The water flow through the membranes also increased with increasing current density and feed water concentration. The increase in water flow increased the current efficiency significantly. Consequently, water flow through electrodialysis (ED) membranes had a positive effect on ED. Electro-osmotic coefficients decreased with increasing feed water concentration. Osmotic flow in EOP-ED decreased relative to the total flow with increasing current density while the electro-osmotic flow increased relative to the osmotic flow. Osmotic flow significantly contributes to the total water flow in EOP. Selemion AMV and CMV membranes performed well for salt concentration. A simple membrane potential measurement has been demonstrated to function reasonably satisfactorily to predict membrane performance for salt concentration