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Use of flow-through electrodes, in which water flows through rather than past porous electrodes, has been shown to be a promising approach to overcoming mass transfer limitations in various electrochemical technologies (including microbial fuel cells, electrochemical disinfection, electrochemical advanced oxidation processes and capacitive deionization). In this work, we fabricated a flow-through CDI cell and investigated the saline water desalination performance and the possible Faradaic reactions occurring in the systems under different flow modes, i.e., forward mode (water flows from anode to cathode) and reverse flow mode (water flows from cathode to anode). Upon applying a charging voltage of 1.2 V, use of flow-through CDI operating under both flow conditions exhibited better desalination performance compared to that of conventional flow-by CDI. Larger pH fluctuations were found in flow-through CDI …