Membrane-Based Processes Used in Municipal Wastewater Treatment for Water Reuse: State-Of-The-Art and Performance Analysis

Abstract

Wastewater reuse as a sustainable, reliable and energy recovery concept is a promising approach to alleviate worldwide water scarcity. However, the water reuse market needs to be developed with long-term efforts because only less than 4% of the total wastewater worldwide has been treated for water reuse at present. In addition, the reclaimed water should fulfill the criteria of health safety, appearance, environmental acceptance and economic feasibility based on their local water reuse guidelines. Moreover, municipal wastewater as an alternative water resource for non-potable or potable reuse, has been widely treated by various membrane-based treatment processes for reuse applications. By collecting lab-scale and pilot-scale reuse cases as much as possible, this review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the membrane-based treatment processes, mainly focused on the hydraulic filtration performance, contaminants removal capacity, reuse purpose, fouling resistance potential, resource recovery and energy consumption. The advances and limitations of different membrane-based processes alone or coupled with other possible processes such as disinfection processes and advanced oxidation processes, are also highlighted. Challenges still facing membrane-based technologies for water reuse applications, including institutional barriers, financial allocation and public perception, are stated as areas in need of further research and development.

Municipal Wastewater Reuse: Is it a Competitive Alternative to Seawater Desalination?

“…It was considered that UF and RO membranes are periodically cleaned using reagents to maintain a suitable pressure drop. The recovery ratio was set to 70% in relation to the inlet wastewater volume [31]. (b) Scenario 2.…”

Antiviral Nanomaterials for Designing Mixed Matrix Membranes

“…To date, based on our survey using Web of Science, research articles focusing on antiviral MMMs have been published in the last several years. Among these articles, there are only a few review articles covering antiviral MMMs, despite soaring interest in research on antiviral materials [ 14 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Moreover, those review articles simply address antiviral MMMs only as a small part of their evaluation focused on membrane processes aimed at virus removal [ 14 , 27 , 29 ], electrospun nanofibers [ 24 , 25 ], disinfection technologies [ 28 , 30 , 31 ], or face mask filters [ 23 , 24 , 26 ].…”

“…Among these articles, there are only a few review articles covering antiviral MMMs, despite soaring interest in research on antiviral materials [ 14 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Moreover, those review articles simply address antiviral MMMs only as a small part of their evaluation focused on membrane processes aimed at virus removal [ 14 , 27 , 29 ], electrospun nanofibers [ 24 , 25 ], disinfection technologies [ 28 , 30 , 31 ], or face mask filters [ 23 , 24 , 26 ]. Therefore, our present work intensively focuses on the development, application, and future perspectives of antiviral MMMs for air and water purification.…”

A Simple Method to Identify the Dominant Fouling Mechanisms during Membrane Filtration Based on Piecewise Multiple Linear Regression

“…Membrane fouling is an obstinate problem in microfiltration (MF, see Appendix C for all the Abbreviations) and ultrafiltration (UF) for water and wastewater treatment [1][2][3][4][5]. Membrane fouling refers to the process of flux decline (or increase in hydraulic resistance) during filtration due to the deposition of suspended or soluble substances on the membrane surface, at the pore openings, or inside the pores.…”