Global Trends of Electrodialysis Research during 1991-2014: a Bibliometric Analysis

Electrodialysis is a mass separation process in which electric energy is used as the driving force to remove ionic components from aqueous solutions through ion-exchange membranes. The present research was performed to evaluate the global scientific output of electrodialysis-related research based on the Science Citation Index-Expanded database from 1991 to 2014. The publication characteristics of document types, languages, journals, subject categories, countries, and institutes were identified in electrodialysis field. In addition, author keywords analysis and "word cluster analysis" were applied to give an insight into the research emphases and trends on electrodialysis. The electrodialysis-related research experienced notable increase in the past 24 years. Desalination was the most active journal in electrodialysis field, followed by Journal of membrane science and Separation and purification technology. China and France were the two largest contributors to electrodialysis research. However, their collaboration patterns were different. Research on ion-exchange membranes, especially bipolar membrane, was one of the hotspots in electrodialysis field. Electrodialysis used for desalination and wastewater treatment were the two most frequently studied applications. Other membrane processes such as reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, and ultrafiltration were the most frequent combination technology with electrodialysis.