Abstract
Electrofiltration, an electric field-assisted membrane process, has been a research topic of growing popularity due to its ability to improve membrane performance by providing in situ antifouling conditions in a membrane system. The number of reports on electrofiltration have increased exponentially over the past two decades. These reports explored many innovations, such as novel configurations of an electric field, engineered membrane materials, and interesting designs of foulant compositions and membrane modules. Recent electrofiltration literature focused mainly on compiling results without a comprehensive comparative analysis across different works. The main objective of this critical review is to, first, organize, compare and contrast the results across various electrofiltration studies; second, discuss various types of mechanisms that could be incorporated into electrofiltration and their effect on membrane system performance; third, characterize electrofiltration phenomenon; fourth, interpret the effects of various operational conditions on the performance of electrofiltration; fifth, evaluate the state-of-the-art knowledge associated with modeling efforts in electrofiltration; sixth, discuss the energy costs related to the implementation of electrofiltration; and finally, identify the current knowledge gaps that hinder the transition of the lab-scale observations to industry-scale electrofiltration as well as the future prospects of electrofiltration.
Highlights
Electrofiltration is a very promising technique for the following reasons: (1) as a Membranes 2021, 11, 820 non-chemical method, it does not introduce additional contaminants into the permeate stream or the retentate stream, (2) application of the electric field does not interfere with continuous membrane operation, and (3) the electric field parameters can be varied depending on the feed water composition, in order to mitigate membrane fouling
Papers from early 2000s focused on demonstrating the proof-of-concept of electrofiltration and providing examples of exploitation of certain mechanisms to improve membrane performance, the studies in the last decade (2010s) demonstrated a growing interest to investigate novel configurations of electrodes alone or in combination with other fouling mitigation strategies, which is a prima facie suggestion for the feasibility of the electrofiltration as a novel fouling mitigation technique [29,30,31,32,33]
It has been shown that a low-level of electric field strength is sufficient to mitigate membrane fouling, which indicates that electrofiltration, in terms of lower energy consumption, could emerge as a practical fouling mitigation strategy [31,34,35,36]
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Electrofiltration is a very promising technique for the following reasons: (1) as a Membranes 2021, 11, 820 non-chemical method, it does not introduce additional contaminants into the permeate stream or the retentate stream, (2) application of the electric field does not interfere with continuous membrane operation, and (3) the electric field parameters (electric field strength and frequency, continuous vs pulsed field) can be varied depending on the feed water composition, in order to mitigate membrane fouling The focus of this critical review is to present the reader with state-of-the-art knowledge in experimental and modeling work, knowledge gaps, and future prospects on the topic of electrofiltration. It provides a discussion on future prospects and conclusions in the field of electrofiltration
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