Process Efficiency in Advanced Membrane-based Water Desalination Processes

By the advent of promising developments in membrane technology, now, arid areas of the world is hoping to apply novel membranes in sea and brackish water desalination process in industrial scales. There are conventional processes for desalination like thermal processes which can wreck havoc on the environment by their inverse carbon footprints. On the other hand membrane-based processes use cleaner energy and have no thermal impact. In this study, focusing on membrane- based methods, first different crucial process parameters are defined. Then, different membrane technologies, including Composite membranes, Graphene, Carbon Nano tubes, Aquaporins, Light-sensitive membranes, Shock electrodialysis membranes, etc. are compared in terms of industrial-scale availability, process efficiency and energy usage. in each case the advantage and disadvantage are discussed and statistics related to their industrial implications is provided. Finally, current active research scope pertained to advanced membrane technology and its implication on water desalination in both industrial and laboratory scales is presented.

Keywords:

Membrane , Graphene , Carbon Nano tubes , Aquaporins , process efficiency