Removal of Fluoride in Water and Wastewater Using Electrodialysis/Electrodialysis Reverse Process: A Review

Fluoride enriched water has a profound effect on human health. Therefore, maximum allowable fluoride concentration in drinking water is limited to 1.5 mg/L in World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Not only drinking water, but also several types of wastewater are contaminated with fluoride. Therefore, untreated fluoride enriched wastewater can be created serious issues on environmental health and aquatic lives. Many methods have been used to remove excessive fluoride present in water and wastewater such as Adsorption, ion exchange, chemical precipitation, electrodialysis, electrocoagulation, reverse osmosis, nanofiltration etc. Many organizations and industries focused on their interest on electrodialysis process to remove excessive fluoride in water due to simplicity and low operational cost of the process. Whilst there are a number of reviews that have attempted to optimize ED performance for fluoride removal from water/wastewater, ED technology still has limitations involving scaling, membrane fouling, and permselectivity. In this paper, an extensive review of current studies on the process, principles, and setups of ED technology on fluoride removal is given to deliver a comprehensive collection of all the main findings published so far. Finally economic feasibility also described.