Research progress of industrial application of membrane electrolysis technology

Membrane (ion membrane) electrolysis technology has gained a lot of attention and development because of its function and advantage of making full use of the two-stage reaction and separating the products of the two poles. In particular, the membrane electrolysis industry has a great potential to grow in the context of the transformation from “carbon-driven” to “electrically driven.” There are many systems that require membrane or ion membrane electrolysis. Typical ones are electrolytic water to hydrogen, chlor-alkali, electrodialysis, electrometallurgy, etc. In this paper, several typical membrane (ion membrane) electrolysis scenarios are selected and analyzed in detail with respect to their principles, development history, characteristics, problems faced, and development prospects. A theoretical basis is laid for the development and application of efficient industrialized membrane electrolysis technology, which will be beneficial to the technological progress in this field.