Membrane Technology and Water Management - Recent Trends and Information

Abstract

The role of membrane technologies in industrial water recycling as well as in potable water production from sea water is steadily increasing due to specific advantages of membrane separation processes (MSP). Ceramic membranes of new types permanently extend the application field of MSP and robust and resistant ceramic structures become price-competitive with polymeric membranes. The performance decline due to fouling of membranes is minimized by new techniques of backshocks, crossflushing and pressure pulsation. With some procedures of backshocks as short as 50 ms, the flux restoration with inorganic suspensions tends to 100 %. Savings of industrial water as large as 60 - 90 % have been achieved in various industry branches by implementation of membrane separation processes of dead-end ultrafiltration, nanofiltration or reverse osmosis.