Solar-assisted membrane technology for water purification: a review

Abstract

A shortage of safe drinking water is one of the main leading problems in the world. Even, in developed countries where water treatment systems are present, safe drinking water may not be always available due to the limitations of advanced water treatment techniques and high energy costs. On the other hand, many rural communities in Asia and Africa situated in semi-arid to arid regions are without reliable access to clean drinking water. It is, therefore, important to explore how solar energy can be linked to water treatment systems for clean drinking water production. Membrane-based water purification technologies play a major role in water purification by utilization of low-cost heat sources to make the process economically and technically viable for small, medium, and large-scale applications. Solar energy can be a viable source of power for water purification facilities in the coming years. Photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors are appropriate solar energy collectors for making a solar-powered water treatment system. Solar-assisted membrane-based water purification techniques could have a viable solution to the existing problems in semi-arid and arid regions. Due to the high quality of potable water demand, studies have been carried out on solar-assisted membrane-based technologies in water purification. This review considers basic concepts, specific energy consumption, water production cost, and applications of solar-driven membrane-based water purification technologies such as reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, electrodialysis, membrane distillation, and hybrid membrane systems. This review will allow the researchers to have a wider overview of the effort made by several investigators in the area of solar-assisted membrane-based water purification technology.

Flat sheet metakaolin ceramic membrane for water desalination via direct contact membrane distillation

“…This is due to higher standards of living, population growth, rapid industrial growth and advancement, and climate change (Brusseau et al 2019;Kumari et al 2021;Zulfiqar et al 2021). To provide a sufficient amount of safe and clean drinking water, both thermal (non-membrane) and membrane-based water desalination techniques are required (Zewdie et al 2021a). Thermal-based water desalination technologies include multi-effect distillation (MED), multistage flash (MSF) distillation, and vapor compression distillation (VCD) (Nafey et al 2006;Baten & Stummeyer 2013;Gude 2018;Feria-Díaz et al 2021).…”

“…Thermal-based water desalination technologies include multi-effect distillation (MED), multistage flash (MSF) distillation, and vapor compression distillation (VCD) (Nafey et al 2006;Baten & Stummeyer 2013;Gude 2018;Feria-Díaz et al 2021). Membrane-based water desalination technologies include reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis (ED), pervaporation (PV), forward osmosis (FO), membrane distillation (MD), and hybrid membrane system (Sanmartino et al 2016;Aliyu et al 2018;Zewdie et al 2021a). Membrane-based water desalination technologies are more energy-efficient, economic, and sustainable than thermal-based water desalination technologies (Baten & Stummeyer 2013;Roy & Ragunath 2018;Zewdie et al 2021a).…”

“…Membrane-based water desalination technologies include reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis (ED), pervaporation (PV), forward osmosis (FO), membrane distillation (MD), and hybrid membrane system (Sanmartino et al 2016;Aliyu et al 2018;Zewdie et al 2021a). Membrane-based water desalination technologies are more energy-efficient, economic, and sustainable than thermal-based water desalination technologies (Baten & Stummeyer 2013;Roy & Ragunath 2018;Zewdie et al 2021a). Among membrane-based water purification techniques, membrane distillation represents an emerging and promising approach for desalination and wastewater treatment application (Sanmartino et al 2016;Alkhudhiri & Hilal 2018;Ashoor et al 2018;Hussain et al 2021;Saavedra et al 2021;Tai et al 2021).…”

Visible-light-driven nanoscale zero-valent iron loaded rGO/g-C3N4 for fluoroquinolone antibiotics degradation in water

“…Solar-energy-enabled photocatalysis is considered a sustainable process to degrade persistent environmental pollutants via the attack of photogenerated reactive species such as holes (h + ) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) (•OH, 1 O 2 , •O 2 − /•HO 2 , and H 2 O 2 ) (Zheng et al, 2019;Schnabel et al, 2021;Zewdie et al, 2021). Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) has attained significant attention for the degradation of organic pollutants in water because of its appealing electronic band structure, excellent physicochemical properties, and abundance (Ong et al, 2016;Balakrishnan and Chinthala, 2022).…”

Femtosecond laser‐produced optical absorbers for solar‐thermal energy harvesting

“…Generally, high temperature is required to operate a heat engine efficiently to reduce energy generation cost. The generated thermal energy can be (i) converted to electricity using thermoelectric generators, 15 heat‐engines, thermo‐PVs, 16 and solar‐thermal steam turbines, 17 (ii) used to purify water through humidification/dehumidification 18 or membrane distillation processes, 19 and (iii) stored in phase change materials to heat the buildings or water 20 (Figure 1). Characteristics of solar absorbers determine the efficiency of solar to thermal energy conversion.…”