High-flux strategy for electrospun nanofibers in membrane distillation to treat aquaculture wastewater: a review

Aquaculture wastewater contains a large amount of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, which has a serious impact on the environment and is also harmful to aquatic life. Such wastewater also contains high salinity, especially for mariculture activities. This review summarizes the recent progress and potential of electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) in membrane distillation (MD) to treat high-salinity aquaculture wastewater. Superhydrophobic membranes, which display a prominent wetting resistance, have been widely used to improve the efficiency of the MD process. The intuitive hypothesis is that a membrane with a low surface energy and a low sliding angle has a higher slip effect, thereby improving the wetting resistance of the membrane. Based on this perspective, this review focuses on the wetting tendency of parahydrophobic ENMs with high water adhesion and membrane design for MD wettability. Various strategies are reviewed, including the techniques to induce surface roughness during membrane fabrication and the post-membrane modification to improve the wetting resistance of MD for long-term operation. This review provides an in-depth analysis and a fundamental interpretation of novel perspectives of ENMs for more advanced MD applications. (c) 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).