The present invention provides a method and apparatus for purifying effluent
wastewater utilizing electrophoretic cross-flow filtration and electrodeionization.
The method first comprises filtering the water in a cross-flow direction with a
filter membrane (120) in the presence of an electric field that is operative
to drive suspended particles away from a surface of the filter membrane (120).
The permeate (134) containing dissolved solids is next passed through a
mixture (188) of at least one cation-exchange resin and at least one anion-exchange
resin disposed between a cation-selective membrane (184) and an anion-selective
membrane (181) in the presence of an electric field. The electric field
drives cations in the permeate through the cation-selective membrane (184),
and drives anions in the permeate through the anion-selective membrane (181),
thereby to form deionized water (192). The apparatus includes cell modules
adapted to be used in plate-and-frame or radial flow configurations.