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Membranes
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Applications of Membrane Processes in Desalination, Wastewater Treatment and Resource...
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Applications of Membrane Processes in Desalination, Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 10359

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Tatiana Scarazzato

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Guest Editor
Chemical Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)—Barcelona TECH, Campus Diagonal, Besòs, 08930 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: resource recovery; electrodialysis; ion exchange membranes; water and wastewater treatment; waste valorization; water purification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Elena Guillen Burrieza

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chemical Engineering Department, R2EM—Resource Recovery and Environmental Management Group, Escola de Enginyeria Barcelona Est (Barcelona TECH UPC), Av. Eduard Maristany, 16, 08019 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: membrane science and engineering; purification and concentration processes; transport phenomena; resource recovery; circularity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Marco Antonio Siqueira Rodrigues

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graduation Program in Technology of Materials and Industrial Processes, Universidade Feevale, Novo Hamburgo 93525-075, Brazil
Interests: membrane separation; desalination; membrane filtration; water and wastewater treatment; ultrafiltration; water purification technologies; material characterization; polymers; separation technology; water purification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mònica Reig

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chemical Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)—Barcelona TECH, Campus Diagonal, Besòs, 08930 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: membranes; resource recovery; waste to product; acid water; seawater; nanofiltration; electrodialysis; liquid–liquid membrane contactors; ion-exchange resins; agro-food recovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mehrez Hermassi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chemical Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)—Barcelona TECH, Campus Diagonal, Besòs, 08930 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: chemical engineering; membrane crystallisation; reactor chemistry; ultrafiltration; biogas upgrading; resource recovery; ion-exchange resins and membrane separation-purification

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Society is facing an increasing demand for energy and resources; however, there is also pressure for more sustainable supply chains. In this sense, membrane technology, a term that refers to several different processes that use synthetic membranes to separate chemical substances, has been recognized as a primary technology for the purification of water, wastewater, and resource recovery. Membrane technology plays a crucial role in the resource recovery theme because of its significance for the environment and economic attractiveness; these qualities are necessary for the fair green development proposed by sustainable agendas that have become a meaningful pillar of our society. Therefore, Membranes is launching a Special Issue, which aims at gathering relevant research on membrane processes, not only as industrial solutions for waste stream treatment but also in recovering valuable materials from effluents. This Special Issue welcomes various articles, including original research, reviews, short communications, and industrial cases.

Dr. Tatiana Scarazzato
Dr. Elena Guillen Burrieza
Dr. Marco Antonio Siqueira Rodrigues
Dr. Mònica Reig
Dr. Mehrez Hermassi
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

  • membrane technology
  • water purification
  • resource recovery
  • process integration
  • wastewater treatment
  • added-value products
  • industrial application

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 5158 KiB  
Article
Experimental Investigation on the Energy and Exergy Efficiency of the Vacuum Membrane Distillation System with Its Various Configurations
by Abdullah Najib, Turki Mana, Emad Ali, Hany Al-Ansary, Fahad Awjah Almehmadi and Mansour Alhoshan
Membranes 2024, 14(2), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes14020054 - 13 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1720
Abstract
This paper addresses a retrofitting vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) setup to reduce the accumulated pressure inside the permeated side. This modification is necessary to extend the operation of the VMD to extreme operation conditions of higher hot water temperatures. This modification, denoted as [...] Read more.
This paper addresses a retrofitting vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) setup to reduce the accumulated pressure inside the permeated side. This modification is necessary to extend the operation of the VMD to extreme operation conditions of higher hot water temperatures. This modification, denoted as a hybrid configuration, proposes the injection of a cold water stream into the VMD cell without mixing it with the permeate. Energy and exergy efficiency analyses were performed to assess the effectiveness of the hybrid configuration. The performance of the modified system indicated an improvement in terms of permeate flux (J), the gain output ratio (GOR), and the utilitarian exergetic efficiency (ηex,u), which reach up to two and three times that of the base configuration of the VMD system. However, the exergetic efficiency (ηex) of the hybrid system showed marginal improvement compared to the base case over the tested range of hot water temperatures. This is because the enhanced vapor production is penalized by excess energy consumption. Moreover, the highest exergy destruction percentages occurred in the operational components (e.g., heater and chillers) which fall in the range of 19.0–68.9%. The exergy destruction percentage in the original components (e.g., the VMD cell and condenser) did not exceed 8.3%. Furthermore, this study indicated that the hybrid configuration requires additional tuning and optimization to perform efficiently over wide operating conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Membrane Processes in Desalination, Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery)
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23 pages, 3089 KiB  
Article
Membranes in Water Reclamation: Treatment, Reuse and Concentrate Management
by Sukanyah Devaisy, Jaya Kandasamy, Tien Vinh Nguyen, Harsha Ratnaweera and Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran
Membranes 2023, 13(6), 605; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13060605 - 15 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3731
Abstract
In this article, an extensive examination is provided on the possible uses of membranes and hybrid processes in wastewater treatment. While membrane technologies face certain constraints, such as membrane fouling and scaling, the incomplete elimination of emerging contaminants, elevated expenses, energy usage, and [...] Read more.
In this article, an extensive examination is provided on the possible uses of membranes and hybrid processes in wastewater treatment. While membrane technologies face certain constraints, such as membrane fouling and scaling, the incomplete elimination of emerging contaminants, elevated expenses, energy usage, and brine disposal, there are approaches that can address these challenges. Methods such as pretreating the feed water, utilizing hybrid membrane systems and hybrid dual-membrane systems, and employing other innovative membrane-based treatment techniques can enhance the efficacy of membrane processes and advance sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Membrane Processes in Desalination, Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery)
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23 pages, 3410 KiB  
Article
Advanced Hybrid System for Ammonium Valorization as Liquid Fertilizer from Treated Urban Wastewaters: Validation of Natural Zeolites Pretreatment and Liquid-Liquid Membrane Contactors at Pilot Plant Scale
by Álvaro Mayor, Mònica Reig, Xanel Vecino, José Luis Cortina and César Valderrama
Membranes 2023, 13(6), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13060580 - 2 Jun 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1737
Abstract
This study evaluates a hybrid system combining zeolites as a sorption stage and a hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) for ammonia (NH3) recovery from treated urban wastewater. Ion exchange with zeolites was selected as an advanced pretreatment and concentration step before [...] Read more.
This study evaluates a hybrid system combining zeolites as a sorption stage and a hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) for ammonia (NH3) recovery from treated urban wastewater. Ion exchange with zeolites was selected as an advanced pretreatment and concentration step before the HFMC. The system was tested with wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent (mainstream, 50 mg N-NH4/L) and anaerobic digestion centrates (sidestream, 600–800 mg N-NH4/L) from another WWTP. Natural zeolite, primarily clinoptilolite, demonstrated effective desorption of retained ammonium using a 2% NaOH solution in a closed-loop configuration, resulting in an ammonia-rich brine that enabled over 95% NH3 recovery using polypropylene HFMCs. A 1 m3/h demonstration plant processed both urban wastewaters, which were pretreated by ultrafiltration, removing over 90% of suspended solids and 60–65% of COD. The 2% NaOH regeneration brines (2.4–5.6 g N-NH4/L) were treated in a closed-loop HFMC pilot system, producing 10–15% N streams with potential use as liquid fertilizers. The resulting ammonium nitrate was free of heavy metals and organic micropollutants, making it suitable for use as liquid fertilizer. This comprehensive N management solution for urban wastewater applications can contribute to local economies while achieving reduced N discharge and circularity goals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Membrane Processes in Desalination, Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery)
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18 pages, 7014 KiB  
Article
ZnO/PDA/Mesoporous Cellular Foam Functionalized Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membrane towards Enhanced Nanofiltration Performance
by Jenny Nambikkattu, Anoopa Ann Thomas, Noel Jacob Kaleekkal, Thanigaivelan Arumugham, Shadi W. Hasan and Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran
Membranes 2023, 13(5), 486; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13050486 - 29 Apr 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2251
Abstract
Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes are the third-generation membranes being explored for nanofiltration applications. Incorporating nanofillers in the dense selective polyamide (PA) layer improves the permeability–selectivity trade-off. The mesoporous cellular foam composite Zn-PDA-MCF-5 was used as a hydrophilic filler in this study to prepare [...] Read more.
Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes are the third-generation membranes being explored for nanofiltration applications. Incorporating nanofillers in the dense selective polyamide (PA) layer improves the permeability–selectivity trade-off. The mesoporous cellular foam composite Zn-PDA-MCF-5 was used as a hydrophilic filler in this study to prepare TFN membranes. Incorporating the nanomaterial onto the TFN-2 membrane resulted in a decrease in the water contact angle and suppression of the membrane surface roughness. The pure water permeability of 6.40 LMH bar−1 at the optimal loading ratio of 0.25 wt.% obtained was higher than the TFN-0 (4.20 LMH bar−1). The optimal TFN-2 demonstrated a high rejection of small-sized organics (>95% rejection for 2,4-dichlorophenol over five cycles) and salts—Na2SO4 (≈95%) > MgCl2 (≈88%) > NaCl (86%) through size sieving and Donnan exclusion mechanisms. Furthermore, the flux recovery ratio for TFN-2 increased from 78.9 to 94.2% when challenged with a model protein foulant (bovine serum albumin), indicating improved anti-fouling abilities. Overall, these findings provided a concrete step forward in fabricating TFN membranes that are highly suitable for wastewater treatment and desalination applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Membrane Processes in Desalination, Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery)
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