The article represents a review for special class of reactant-less ion-exchange processes regulated by temperature. Analysis of experimental results published before and new data, as well as thermodynamic characteristics of different ion-exchange reactions and short theoretical descriptions of equilibrium and dynamics are given. Along with the demonstration of experimental data, authors try to give an exact classification of temperature-driven methods based on fundamental physical and chemical regularities of temperature influence on ion exchange in columns. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.