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Membranes
Special Issues
New Challenges in Membrane Technology for Desalination
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New Challenges in Membrane Technology for Desalination

A Special Issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375) belonging to the section "Membrane Applications for Water Treatment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 1310

Editors

Dr. Junyang Tao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Materials, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518107, China
Interests: desalination; interfacial processes; bionic manufacturing
Dr. Shudong Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Advanced Manufacturing, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518107, China
Interests: porous polymers; biomimetics; interfacial solar steam generation; radiative cooling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Freshwater scarcity, population growth, industrialization, and climate change have made desalination increasingly important for sustainable water supply. Membrane-based desalination offers high efficiency, a modular design, and broad applicability. However, challenges remain, including fouling, scaling, high energy demand, limited durability, insufficient selectivity, and performance decline under complex conditions. Emerging needs, such as hypersaline brine treatment, resource recovery, and decentralized systems, demand new membrane materials, advanced interface engineering, and integrated process design. For this Special Issue, ‘New Challenges in Membrane Technology for Desalination’, we invite high-quality research and review articles on the recent progress and future directions in this field. Topics include innovative membrane materials, surface modification, antifouling and anti-scaling strategies, membrane distillation, forward osmosis, electrodialysis, hybrid processes, brine management, and the water–energy nexus. This Special Issue will provide a platform for researchers to share new concepts, technologies, and practical solutions for advancing efficient and sustainable desalination.

Dr. Junyang Tao
Dr. Shudong Yu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • membrane desalination
  • surface modification
  • antifouling membranes
  • membrane materials

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 2338 KB  
Article
Auditable Clean-in-Place Decision Support from Routine SWRO SCADA: Selecting Differential-Pressure Recovery and Falsifying a Per-CIP-Reset Trigger
by Yi Hsiang Su, Fan Cheng Meng and Pieh Yu Chang
Membranes 2026, 16(8), 257; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes16080257 - 28 Jul 2026
Viewed by 607
Abstract
Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination operators time membrane clean-in-place (CIP) by non-site-calibrated vendor thresholds. We present an auditable workflow that converts these thresholds into plant-calibrated decision support. It pre-specifies the recovery target and analysis unit, compares candidate signals with a five-test label-free battery, and [...] Read more.
Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination operators time membrane clean-in-place (CIP) by non-site-calibrated vendor thresholds. We present an auditable workflow that converts these thresholds into plant-calibrated decision support. It pre-specifies the recovery target and analysis unit, compares candidate signals with a five-test label-free battery, and reports composite weights only when identifiable. Using ≈two years of routine 10 min SCADA from one three-train island seawater RO plant (≈600 m3 d−1), the battery selects normalised feed channel differential pressure (DP_norm) for site-specific cleaning-recovery review. On the false discovery rate (FDR)-effective unit (n = 14 campaigns), recovery is marginal and not FDR-significant (mid-p Benjamini–Hochberg q ≈ 0.141); DP_norm is therefore an operator-review signal, not an autonomous or FDR-confirmed trigger. The same battery invalidates a per-CIP-reset net driving pressure trigger as a clip-floor regression-to-the-mean artefact; it collapses under the pre-specified matched placebo and is reproduced by a fake-date null, a finding that is bounded to this plant and estimand, and not causal proof of a unique mechanism. The DP_norm of ≥1.20 review point is an exploratory, in-sample heuristic selected partly against the endogenous operator log, and its indexed economic comparison inherits that limitation. An identifiability-gated Bayesian power prior leaves the four-weight composite non-identifiable on this single-regime plant, pinning only the near-zero salt passage weight. The contribution is a bounded, estimand-based workflow that supports audit without replacing operators or the safety envelope. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Membrane Technology for Desalination)
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Review

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18 pages, 2202 KB  
Review
Organic Membrane Fouling in Advanced Water Purification: Mechanisms, Bulk-Phase Aggregation, and Control Strategies
by Guoqing Wang, Bihui Niu, Geng Tang, Tianxiang Wang and Ningqing Lv
Membranes 2026, 16(8), 271; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes16080271 - 14 Aug 2026
Viewed by 434
Abstract
Membrane separation has become a key technology for advanced water purification and control of emerging contaminants because of its high separation efficiency, low chemical demand, and ease of integration. However, organic membrane fouling induced by the coupling of dissolved organic matter and coexisting [...] Read more.
Membrane separation has become a key technology for advanced water purification and control of emerging contaminants because of its high separation efficiency, low chemical demand, and ease of integration. However, organic membrane fouling induced by the coupling of dissolved organic matter and coexisting metal ions remains a major obstacle to stable and efficient membrane operation. This review focuses on metal ion-mediated formation of organic aggregates in the bulk solution and their governing role in membrane fouling behavior. The review summarizes how metal ions regulate organic aggregate formation through distinct dominant mechanisms. Na+ mainly screens electrostatic repulsion, Ca2+ promotes ion bridging and cross-linking, and Mg2+ often induces weaker bridging or hydration-mediated effects due to its stable hydration shell. The review further discusses the dual effects of mixed foulants and dynamic fouling layers on the rejection of emerging contaminants. In addition, current control strategies, including pre-coagulation, pre-oxidation, and catalytic functional membranes, are evaluated from the perspective of regulating aggregate structures and interrupting interfacial deposition. Finally, future research should shift from membrane-interface-centered analysis to bulk-phase aggregation, establish quantitative structure–effect relationships between aggregate properties and fouling behavior, and promote fouling-control strategies from mechanistic effectiveness toward engineering practicality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Membrane Technology for Desalination)
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