Membrane-Based Processes for Water Treatment and Desalination: A Comprehensive Review

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute

2 Helwan cairo

3 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University Hewan, Cairo, Egypt

4 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University

Abstract

Recently, research for new and developed methods of water desalination and water treatment have accelerated due to freshwater excessive need for municipal, agriculture and industry. Due to the lack of drinkable fresh water, water desalination methods based on membranes are developing continuously. In this article, membrane-based processes for water desalination are reviewed. This includes but is not limited to electrodialysis, electrodialysis reversal, membrane distillation, pervaporation, reverse osmosis and forward osmosis. Also, membrane fouling methods and the applied processes for controlling (cleaning) fouling are discussed in detail. This includes physical cleaning by periodic back flushing, pneumatic cleaning, ultra-sonic cleaning or sponge ball cleaning, chemical cleaning, biological/biochemical cleaning or physico-chemical cleaning. Types of membranes are reviewed. Moreover, inorganic membranes (IM) are compared to organic membranes (OM).
Generally speaking, IM have much better characteristics, such as relatively high chemical resistance, long lifetime, good thermal and mechanical stability, and autoclavable, making them suitable for use in harsh conditions such as corrosive and high-temperature environments. Furthermore, manufacturing of IM does not consume toxic solvents. However, the marketing of IM is still small and their prices are still expensive. IM can be developed by doping with nanomaterials such as graphene oxide.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics