Membrane processes represent a viable alternative to address global water scarcity. In a context of climate-water-energy-food nexus, membrane-based desalination and water treatment processes have to comply to stringent performance and environmental requirements. Therefore, reliable scale-up and optimization strategies are needed to design sustainable processes.
Membrane filtration technologies have thrived rapidly to compensate for freshwater scarcity. Besides its mechanical support to the membrane, the feed spacer in spiral wound modules (SWM) helps to enhance the fluid mixing and promote unsteadiness resulting in improving water production and minimizing (bio)fouling development. Thus, the control of hydrodynamics in the filtration channel by optimal spacer design is required for efficient SWM.
Solar desalination is a sustainable desalination method that could satisfy two aspects: • Desalination of brackish and seawater in remote regions with limited access to electricity • Brine treatment and salt recovery from conventional desalination plants
During produced water (PW) treatment with forward osmosis (FO) the membrane gets fouled. Osmotic backwashing (OB) is a unique phenomenon in FO to remove reversible foulants without any hydraulic pressure application. This research optimizes OB protocol for PW fouled FO membranes cleaning.
Globally, the interdependency between the water and energy is getting more and more attention from academia, industrial, as well as the general public. It is essential to an in-depth understanding of the water-energy nexus to provide an optimum and practical solution for the water and energy scarcity, simultaneously. Thus, developing a cost-effect, simple, scalable, efficient membrane, or modification of the existing membranes to treat and desalinate wastewater and seawater, respectively, is highly recommended to provide fresh water as well as decrease the energy required for the process. In this work, we fabricated a novel thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis membrane using PAN nanofiber as a low-tortuous, highly porous, and hydrophilic substrate.
Membrane distillation (MD), a hybrid thermal- membrane desalination technology, is gaining increased attention for its ability to produce high-quality freshwater from seawater/brine owing to its several distinct advantages, including diminutive dependence on the feed water salinity and very high salt rejection.
Membrane biofouling remains the predominant challenge related to the operation of reverse osmosis (RO) systems. This phenomenon significantly reduces the performance and efficiency of RO membranes, leading to an increase in energy consumption and operating costs. Therefore, the development of biofouling monitoring strategies with early detection of biofilm formation on membrane systems is critically required.
Membrane distillation (MD) could aid in effective seawater desalination and brine management due to its lower reliance on feed water osmotic pressure. In MD, the water vapor is stratified from the heated saline stream by hydrophobic membrane and condensed on the permeate side which has lower temperature.