Modeling and interpretation of membrane capacitive deionization responses to different salt load

Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) has been found to offer beneficial aspects compared with regular capacitive deionization as a promising process for water desalination. This research varied the salt load in a bench‐scale MCDI system and presented a kinetic model for describing its dynamic response of electrosorption and desorption. A pseudofirst‐order kinetic model was found to describe the MCDI process well according to graphical analyses of fitting results. Both regression and verification R2 values were greater than 0.97. Utilization of the model for the prediction of MCDI performance under the influences of initial salt concentration and flow rate led to proper calibration strategies. The impacts of the two parameters on both electrosorption and desorption can be interpreted by a layer resistance theory. Results of this research are beneficial for water professionals for improving desalination efficiency of an MCDI system as consideration of parameter settings is necessary for proper calibration and operation.