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Membranes
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Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment
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Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2023) | Viewed by 14274

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mohammadamin Ezazi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA
Interests: membrane-based liquids separation; water treatment and desalination; surface and interface science; multifunctional surfaces and coatings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Moinuddin Mohammed Quazi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Pekan 26600, Pahang, Malaysia
Interests: sustainable development goals; surface coatings and modifications; materials characterization; tribological properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In collaboration with Membranes, we are delighted to invite contributions to the Special Issue “Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment”. As an interdisciplinary area of study, membrane science and technology employs materials science, (bio)chemistry, and manufacturing technologies to design and fabricate membranes for an extensive range of functions. Separation is perhaps the cornerstone of the functions that have been conventionally offered by membranes. When a membrane is interfaced with a phase as a selective barrier, it can regulate the permeation or rejection of components under certain conditions, resulting in separation. In particular, membranes are attractive in separation of liquids and water treatment as they do not require thermal inputs or additives, and their operation enables relatively higher capital efficiency, and lower environmental impact compared to other conventional processes. Further, membranes are amenable to scalable and modular design. Meanwhile, issues such as durability, fouling, and permeability-selectivity trade-off remain the main challenges in applications that involve membrane-based separation.

The special issue aims at covering different aspects of the membranes employed in liquids separation and water treatment including but not limited to: (1) materials (e.g., organic or inorganic), (2) fabrication and characterization of physico-chemical properties, (3) process and configuration, (4) separation mechanism, (5) performance evaluation, (6) computational modelling (e.g., atomistic, kinetic, CFD) and simulation, and (7) industrial applications. The special issue is open to the submission of original research articles, short communications, and review articles as specified in the journal Aims and Scope.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Mohammadamin Ezazi
Dr. Moinuddin Mohammed Quazi
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind 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

  • membranes
  • membrane-based separation
  • liquids separation
  • water and wastewater treatment

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

4 pages, 220 KiB  
Editorial
Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment
by Mohammadamin Ezazi, M. M. Quazi and Hossein Taheri
Membranes 2023, 13(9), 779; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13090779 - 4 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1477
Abstract
Rapid urbanization and industrialization in the past decades have resulted in vast amounts of wastewater containing pollutants such as inorganic chemicals, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, plant nutrients, petrochemical products, and microplastics [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

15 pages, 4596 KiB  
Article
Techno-Economic Analysis of Vacuum Membrane Distillation for Seawater Desalination
by Hassaan Idrees, Sara Ali, Muhammad Sajid, Muhammad Rashid, Fahad Iqbal Khawaja, Zaib Ali and Muhammad Nabeel Anwar
Membranes 2023, 13(3), 339; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13030339 - 15 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3417
Abstract
Seawater desalination is an affordable and viable solution to the growing freshwater scarcity problem in water scarce regions. The current study focuses on cost analysis of Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) setup for removing salts from water. The membrane used in the flat sheet [...] Read more.
Seawater desalination is an affordable and viable solution to the growing freshwater scarcity problem in water scarce regions. The current study focuses on cost analysis of Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) setup for removing salts from water. The membrane used in the flat sheet VMD module was Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with 250 mm × 200 mm dimensions and 165 µm thickness. The experiments were carried out with variations in parameters such as velocity, pressure, concentration, and temperature. For the cost analysis, the operational, maintenance, instrumentation, and capital cost of the lab model was considered and then upscaled. A range of experiments was performed for NaCl and KCl under variations of operating parameters. It was noted that, for the NaCl solution, the increase in temperature from 50 °C to 70 °C doubled the permeate flux. However, for the conditions tested, the concentration shift from 0.25 M to 0.75 M decreased the permeate flux by 1.4% because the increase in ion concentrations along the membrane lowers the vapor pressure, restricting the permeate flux. The results trend for the KCl solution was similar to the NaCl; at temperature T1, it was noted that increased concentration from 0.25 M to 0.75 M significantly reduces the permeate flow. The reduction in permeate flow was nonlinear for a given pressure 30 kPa and velocity 5.22 m/s, but linear for all other variables. It was also observed that with an increase in temperature from 60 °C to 70 °C, the permeate flux for concentration 0.25 M was 49% for all the combinations of pressure and velocity. In addition, permeate flow increased 53% from temperature 50 °C to 60 °C and 49% from temperature 60 °C to 70 °C for both the solutions at a concentration of 0.25 M. This shows that the temperature also had a profound impact on the permeate flux. The economic analysis and market survey shows that the cost of clean water at the lab level was high which can be significantly reduced using a large-scale setup providing 1,000,000 L/H of distilled water. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment)
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17 pages, 5609 KiB  
Article
Second-Generation Magnesium Phosphates as Water Extractant Agents in Forward Osmosis and Subsequent Use in Hydroponics
by Esther Mendoza, Albert Magrí, Gaëtan Blandin, Àlex Bayo, Josephine Vosse, Gianluigi Buttiglieri, Jesús Colprim and Joaquim Comas
Membranes 2023, 13(2), 226; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13020226 - 13 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2133
Abstract
The recovery of nutrients from wastewater streams for their later use in agricultural fertilization is an interesting approach. Wastewater recovered magnesium phosphate (MgP) salts were used in a forward osmosis (FO) system as draw solution in order to extract water and to produce [...] Read more.
The recovery of nutrients from wastewater streams for their later use in agricultural fertilization is an interesting approach. Wastewater recovered magnesium phosphate (MgP) salts were used in a forward osmosis (FO) system as draw solution in order to extract water and to produce a nutrient solution to be used in a hydroponic system with lettuces (Lactuca sativa, L.). Owing to the low solubility of the MgP salts (i.e., struvite, hazenite and cattiite) in water, acid dissolution was successfully tested using citric and nitric acids to reach pH 3.0. The dilution by FO of the dissolved salts reached levels close to those needed by a hydroponic culture. Ion migration through the membrane was medium to high, and although it did not limit the dilution potential of the system, it might decrease the overall feasibility of the FO process. Functional growth of the lettuces in the hydroponic system was achieved with the three MgP salts using the recovered water as nutrient solution, once properly supplemented with nutrients with the desired concentrations. This is an innovative approach for promoting water reuse in hydroponics that benefits from the use of precipitated MgP salts as a nutrient source. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment)
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15 pages, 1862 KiB  
Article
Simultaneous Carbamazepine and Phosphate Removal from a Moving-Bed Membrane Bioreactor Effluent by the Electrochemical Process: Treatment Optimization by Factorial Design
by Khanh-Chau Dao, Yung-Pin Tsai, Chih-Chi Yang and Ku-Fan Chen
Membranes 2022, 12(12), 1256; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121256 - 12 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1727
Abstract
Pharmaceutical and personal care products are frequently used in various fields and released into water bodies from the outlets of wastewater treatment plants. These products can harm the environment and human health even at low concentrations. Carbamazepine (CBZ), the most persistent pharmaceutical, has [...] Read more.
Pharmaceutical and personal care products are frequently used in various fields and released into water bodies from the outlets of wastewater treatment plants. These products can harm the environment and human health even at low concentrations. Carbamazepine (CBZ), the most persistent pharmaceutical, has frequently been found in surface waters that bypassed the secondary treatments of conventional activated sludge. In addition, the treatment of phosphate in wastewater by the electrochemical process has recently attracted much attention because of its ability to remove, recover, and prevent environmental problems associated with eutrophication. This study proposes using the electrochemical process as an advanced oxidation process to simultaneously treat CBZ and phosphate from the moving-bed membrane bioreactor effluent. The study includes a long-term survey of CBZ treatment efficiency and common parameters of synthetic wastewater in the moving-bed membrane bioreactor system. Afterward, the electrochemical process is applied as an advanced oxidation process for the simultaneous removal of CBZ and phosphate from the moving-bed membrane bioreactor. Under the investigated conditions, CBZ has proven not to be an inhibitor of microbial activity, as evidenced by the high extent of chemical oxygen demand and nutrient removal. Using a factorial design, the electrochemical process using Pt/Ti as anode and cathode under optimal conditions (reaction time—80 min, bias potential—3 V, and electrode distance—1 cm) resulted in as high as 56.94% CBZ and 95.95% phosphate removal, respectively. The results demonstrated the ability to combine an electrochemical and a moving-bed membrane bioreactor process to simultaneously remove CBZ and phosphate in wastewater. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment)
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9 pages, 2992 KiB  
Article
Solvent–Solute Interaction Effect on Permeation Flux through Forward Osmosis Membranes Investigated by Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics
by Hayato Higuchi, Masaya Miyagawa and Hiromitsu Takaba
Membranes 2022, 12(12), 1249; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121249 - 9 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1841
Abstract
The relationship between the solvent–solute interaction and permeation properties is fundamental in the development of the forward osmosis (FO) membrane. In this study, we report on the quantitative reproduction of the permeation flux, which has different solvent–solute interactions, through the modeled FO membrane [...] Read more.
The relationship between the solvent–solute interaction and permeation properties is fundamental in the development of the forward osmosis (FO) membrane. In this study, we report on the quantitative reproduction of the permeation flux, which has different solvent–solute interactions, through the modeled FO membrane by non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD). The interaction effect was investigated by changing the interatomic interaction between the solute and the solvent. The calculated permeation through the semi-permeable modeled FO membrane, in which the interaction between solvent and solution is equal to that between solutions, was consistent with the theoretical curve derived from the combination of the permeation flux and Van’t Hoff equations. These results validate the NEMD for the evaluation of permeation in FO. On the other hand, the permeation is much derived from the theoretical values when the interaction between the solvent and solute atoms is relatively large. However, the simulated permeation was consistent with the theoretical curve, correcting the solution concentration by the coordination number of the solvent atoms to the solute atoms. Our results imply that permeation flux through the FO membrane is significantly changed by the interaction between the solute and the solvent and can be theoretically predicted by calculating the coordination number of the solvent to the solute, which can be readily estimated by equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment)
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Review

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24 pages, 3159 KiB  
Review
Recent Developments in Two-Dimensional Materials-Based Membranes for Oil–Water Separation
by Mohammadamin Ezazi and M. M. Quazi
Membranes 2023, 13(7), 677; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13070677 - 18 Jul 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2499
Abstract
The industrialization witnessed in the last century has resulted in an unprecedented increase in water pollution. In particular, the water pollution induced by oil contaminants from oil spill accidents, as well as discharges from pharmaceutical, oil/gas, and metal processing industries, have raised concerns [...] Read more.
The industrialization witnessed in the last century has resulted in an unprecedented increase in water pollution. In particular, the water pollution induced by oil contaminants from oil spill accidents, as well as discharges from pharmaceutical, oil/gas, and metal processing industries, have raised concerns due to their potential to pose irreversible threats to the ecosystems. Therefore, the effective treating of these large volumes of oily wastewater is an inevitable challenge to address. Separating oil–water mixtures by membranes has been an attractive technology due to the high oil removal efficiency and low energy consumption. However, conventional oil–water separation membranes may not meet the complex requirements for the sustainable treatment of wastewater due to their relatively shorter life cycle, lower chemical and thermal stability, and permeability/selectivity trade-off. Recent advancements in two-dimensional (2D) materials have provided opportunities to address these challenges. In this article, we provide a brief review of the most recent advancements in oil–water separation membranes modified with 2D materials, with a focus on MXenes, graphenes, metal–organic frameworks, and covalent organic frameworks. The review briefly covers the backgrounds, concepts, fabrication methods, and the most recent representative studies. Finally, the review concludes by describing the challenges and future research directions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Studies of Membranes for Liquids Separation and Water Treatment)
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