Research Progress on the Application of Electrodialysis Technology for Clean Discharge Water Treatment from Power Plants

The increasing global demand for sustainable water management in coal-fired power plants highlights the critical challenges of high-salinity wastewater treatment, where electrodialysis technology emerges as a promising technology for salinity removal. This paper systematically investigates the application status, technical principles, advantages, and challenges of electrodialysis (ED) in clean water treatment for coal-fired power plants, and its future development potential is also discussed. As an efficient membrane-based desalination technology, ED could effectively remove chloride ions, sulfate ions, and other dissolved salts from clean water, significantly reducing conductivity and enabling both water reuse and salt recovery. Studies indicate that through optimized operational parameters and system design, ED systems can achieve over 90% desalination efficiency and concentrate salts to levels exceeding 12%, delivering notable economic and environmental benefits. However, practical implementation still faces challenges such as membrane fouling and high energy consumption. Advances in novel membrane materials, system integration, and intelligent control technologies are expected to broaden ED’s applicability in power plant water treatment. This study serves as a valuable technical reference for advancing clean water purification and resource recovery in the energy sector, and the findings will contribute to informed decision-making for sustainable water treatment solutions.