Emerging Technologies • Treatment process

Capacitive Deionization CDI

Electrodeionisation by adsorption in an electric field, effective at very low salinity. Research/early-commercial; not modeled.

Engineering maturity: Developing Commercial status: Emerging

Engineering Disclaimer & Verification Notice

This calculator provides preliminary engineering estimates for informational and planning purposes. Actual reverse osmosis / engineering system performance depends on site conditions, feed-water chemistry, membrane characteristics, operating pressure, temperature, recovery limits, fouling/scaling potential, and system design. Verify results using project-specific data, manufacturer projections, and applicable engineering standards before final design or operation.

Overview

Electrodeionisation by adsorption in an electric field, effective at very low salinity. Research/early-commercial; not modeled.

How it works

Separation mechanism and feed window. Requires very low feed salinity, typically below RO permeate; used as a polisher.

What the process produces. Very low conductivity water.

Energy. Electrical. Energy per unit salt removed rises as feed salinity falls.

Process sequence

Where this technology normally sits in a treatment train. The steps either side of it are documented in the Library as separate entries.

Low-salinity feed
Electrode stack
Regeneration
Product collection

Typical applications

Polishing after RO
Ultrapure water
Brine mining

Main equipment

Electrode/ion-exchange stack
High-voltage power supply
Regeneration circuit

Key design parameters

The parameters an engineer actually sets, and why each one drives the design. EngiMetric does not assume any of them.

Parameter	Why it matters
Feed salinity	The usefulness of CDI falls as feed salinity rises.
Energy per unit salt removed	The decisive economic number.
Stack gap and spacer	Governs the achievable current density.

Advantages

Continuous regeneration.
Very high quality polishing.

Limitations

Poor fit for seawater or brackish feed.
Scaling in the concentrate.

Engineering considerations

EngiMetric has no CDI engine and claims no energy figures.

Status and EngiMetric support

Industry maturity and commercial status describe the technology itself. EngiMetric support and quantitative modeling describe what this platform does with it — and those two are read from the engineering registry at build time, so they cannot drift from the code.

Engineering maturity: Developing How established the technology is in the industry. Not an EngiMetric claim.
Commercial status: Emerging Where the technology sits in the market. Not an EngiMetric claim.
EngiMetric support: Research No execution-registry entry exists, so no support is claimed.
Design engine: No Whether the Plant Designer can carry this as a configured process step.
Quantitative modeling: Not quantitatively modeled No engine exists, so EngiMetric states no figure for this technology.

Not quantitatively modeled. EngiMetric publishes no energy, recovery, flux, capacity or cost figure for this technology. Every quantitative statement on this page comes from your own inputs or from an external source, never from a calculation on this platform.

Because no EngiMetric engine exists for Capacitive Deionization, this page deliberately contains no calculated figures. Any energy, recovery, flux or capacity value you need must come from a supplier, a published plant or your own analysis.