Effective Desalination of Brackish Water by Electrodialysis Using SPANI Composite Cation Exchange Membranes

Abstract Water scarcity occurring across the globe is a matter of concern. The problem may grow worst in coming decades so access to clean and drinkable water is the priority among the researchers. Electrodialysis (ED) is an energy efficient and cost effective technique to produce potable water in which ions migrate through an ion exchange membrane. Here we present the preparation of composite membranes based on sulfonated polyaniline (SPANI) as ion conducting filler and sulfonated poly ether sulfone (SPES) as polymer matrix with different concentration of SPANI (1 to 20 wt %). Composite membranes have been subjected to electrodialysis experiment for analyzing the performance towards salt removal. Composite membranes show good performance towards salt removal. S‐SP‐5 membrane has been observed best among the prepared membranes in terms of physicochemical properties as well as the ED performance. Energy consumption for S‐SP‐5 membrane is 0.99 kWh kg −1 and the salt removal efficiency is 76.28%. Thus SPANI/SPES based composite membranes have been effective for salt removal from water using electrodialysis.