From capacitive deionization to desalination batteries and desalination fuel cells

The considerable growth of the world population, concomitant with an increase in environmental pollution, aggravates the antinomy between supply and demand for drinking water. Various desalination technologies have been developed to address this issue, allowing for abundant saltwater as a source for drinking water. Electrochemical desalination attracts more and more attention due to its high energy efficiency, facile operation, and low cost. Especially within the last decade, tremendous scientific progress on electrochemical desalination technologies has been made. This article reviews the development of electrochemical desalination technologies and introduces a facile classification into three generations based on the different working principles. The cell architecture, metrics, advantages, and disadvantages of other electrochemical desalination technologies are introduced and compared.

Automated summary

With the considerable growth of the world population and increase in environmental pollution, the development of desalination technologies has become increasingly important. Electrochemical desalination is gaining more attention due to its high energy efficiency, easy operation, and low cost, leading to significant scientific progress in the past decade.