Ion migration mechanism of electrochemical water softening in dual-chamber reactors and their performance for real circulating cooling water

Electrochemical water softening studies often use ion exchange membrane (IEM) reactors. However, their practical application is limited because of inevitable cathodic scaling. To overcome this challenge, one necessary approach is to understand the ion migration mechanism in the typical IEM reactor. In this study, we used operando visualization to reveal that the divider such as IEM or nylon nets was essential to confine the neutralization reaction between H+ and OH−. Ca2+ and Mg2+ may transfer from the anode chamber through the divider into the cathode chamber via electromigration. Using mesh electrodes instead of plate electrodes, the total hardness removal in the cathode chamber and anode chamber was 94.2% and 92.5%, respectively. The high removal rate was attributed to H2 microbubbles produced by cathodic water electrolysis, which drove OH− ions diffusion into solution and sequentially strengthened the nucleation of scale crystals in solution rather than on the cathode surface. On the basis of the above ion migration mechanism, the revolutionized reactor with mesh electrode module and nylon-net divider exhibited good performance in softening real circulating cooling water, and the total hardness removal exceeded 93.1% during 30 h running. These results open new horizons for improving the practicability of electrochemical water softening.