Co-ion fluxes of simple inorganic ions in electrodialysis metathesis and conventional electrodialysis

The main functionality of ion-exchange membranes is to selectively permeate either cations or anions. However, co-ions may permeate as well to some extent through these membranes. For the production of chemicals with electrodialysis metathesis and conventional electrodialysis, these co-ion fluxes are a major source of impurities in the produced chemicals. The present paper studies the co-ion fluxes and the influence of operating parameters. The results clearly indicate that co-ion fluxes are predominately determined by the difference in ion concentration across the membrane. A more than linear increase in co-ion flux with respect to the ion concentration was observed. The current density has no significant influence on the co-ion fluxes. Therefore, a high current density leads to a smaller transport number of co-ions and improves the product purity in electrodialysis metathesis. Moreover, the co-ion flux can be decreased by the use of bulky counter-ions. In a conventional electrodialysis configuration, cation impurities are mainly caused by a diffusional flux. This flux is approximately three times larger than the co-ion flux. In contrast, the anion impurities are predominantly initiated by a co-ion flux and in magnitude smaller than the cation impurities.