Preparation of mineral source water from deep sea water: Reduction of sulfate ion using selemion ASV membrane

Adopting a laboratory-scaled electrodialysis (ED) process, we investigate the performance of a monovalent anion exchange permselective membrane in the reduction of the concentration of sulfate ions during the production of mineral source water from deep sea water (DSW). The dependence of the separation efficiency of anions on the operating time and the applied DC voltage is investigated based on a brine having salinity of about 15% prepared from DSW. The experimental results reveal that if the applied DC voltage is high, the change in the liquid volume during ED is dominated by the ions transported and the effect of electroosmosis. In addition, the amount of chloride ions transported correlates roughly linearly with the operating time, and the transport of sulfate ions is found to be blocked by chloride ions, presumably because of that the pore size of the permselective layer is close to the size of sulfate ions. ? 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).