Membrane and Membrane-Based Hybrid Processes for Water Treatment

Dear Colleagues,

Demand for freshwater has significantly increased over the past decade with the exponential growth of the world’s population and rapid industrialization. Nowadays, about one-fifth of the world’s population suffer from severe water shortage and limited access to clean water. The lack of freshwater has therefore intensified efforts to upgrade the available water treatment processes and to develop advanced techniques to treat, purify, recycle and reuse water sustainably. Membrane separation processes have become one of the fastest emerging technologies for desalination and water treatment due to their distinct advantages over traditional methods such as adsorption, coagulation, biological treatment, and oxidation. In particular, membrane processes provide lower operating costs, compact design and high product quality. However, high susceptibility of membranes to fouling, restricts the development of sustainable and energy-efficient membrane processes for water treatment. Given that, much research and development have been recently undertaken to develop either high-performance antifouling membranes or membrane-based hybrid processes. Enhanced antifouling properties were typically achieved via membrane surface modification techniques including: (i) photo- and redox-initiated grafting of hydrophilic polymers; (ii) plasma treatment; (iii) physical coating of a layer of hydrophilic polymers on the surface; and (iv) applying functional nanomaterials to synthesize hybrid polymer/inorganic membranes. In addition, combining the membrane process with conventional well-known water treatment techniques, such as membrane bioreactors (MBR), ceramic ultrafiltration (UF)/reverse osmosis (RO), micellar enhanced UF (MEUF), electrocoagulation/MF, and activated carbon/membrane, aimed to reduce energy consumption, operating costs, final effluent concentration and to overcome concerns related to water treatment in harsh conditions. This Special Issue focuses on the attempts that have been devoted to the development of advanced membrane materials and membrane-based hybrid processes to improve water and energy efficiency in water treatment processes.

Prof. Dr. Mohtada Sadrzadeh
Prof. Dr. Toraj Mohammadi
Guest Editors

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