Abstract
The deficiency of clean water is a major global concern because all the living creatures rely on the drinkable water for survival. On top of this, abundant of clean water supply is also necessary for household, metropolitan inhabitants, industry, and agriculture. Among many purification processes, advances in low-energy membrane separation technology appear to be the most effective solution for water crisis because membranes have been widely recognized as one of the most direct and feasible approaches for clean water production. The aim of this article is to give an overview of (1) two new emerging membrane technologies for water reuse and desalination by forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD), and (2) the molecular engineering and development of highly permeable hollow fiber membranes, with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polybenzimidazole (PBI) as the main focuses for the aforementioned applications in National University of Singapore (NUS). This article presents the main results of membrane module design, separation performance, membrane characteristics, chemical modification and spinning conditions to produce novel hollow fiber membranes for FO and MD applications. As two potential solutions, MD and FO may be synergistically combined to form a hybrid system as a sustainable alternative technology for fresh water production.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 2 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-24 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Journal | MEMBRANE AND WATER TREATMENT |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-09-21Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A* Star, Singapore) (R-279-000-291-305), Environment & Water Industry Development Council (EWI, Singapore) (R-279-000-271-272), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) (R-279-000-265-597), and National University of Singapore (NUS) (R-279-000-265-598 and R-279-000-291-331), for funding this research work. Special thanks are also due to PBI Performance Products Inc. and Kureha Corporation for the provision of PBI and PVDF (T #2300 and T#1300) polymer resin, respectively.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.
Keywords
- Desalination
- Forward osmosis
- Hollow fiber membranes
- Membrane distillation
- Nanofiltration
- Separation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemical Engineering
- Water Science and Technology