Capacitive deionization(CDI) has many advantages over other desalination technologies due to its low energy consumption, less environmental pollution and relative low fouling potential. The objectives of this study are evaluate the performance of CDI which can be used for dissolved salts removal from sewage. To identify ion selectivity of nitrate and phosphate in multi-ionic solutions and adsorption/desorption performance related to applied potential, a series of laboratory scale experiments were conducted using a CDI unit cell with activated carbon electrodes. The CDI process was able to achieve more than 75 % TDS and NO3-, NH4+ removals, while phosphate removal was 60.8 % and is inversely related in initial TDS and H3- concentration. In continuous operation, increasing the inner cell pressure and reduction of TDS removal ability were investigated which are caused by inorganic scaling and biofouling. However a relative mild cleaning solution(5 % of citric acid for calcium scaling and 500 mg/L of NaOCl for organic fouling) restored the electrochemical adsorption capacity of the CDI unit to its initial level.