Membrane and Membrane-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment

Water contamination by various heavy metal salts, organic waste and biological impurities—bacteria, viruses and so on—is increasing globally and needs to be addressed as this will lead to water scarcity and water quality issues. Technical membranes are employed for filtering out impure particles, dissolved salts, viruses and pollutants from contaminated water just like the functioning of cell walls in the human body. First, membranes were employed for treating wastewater, but in the next few decades, they will mainly be applied for desalination purposes. In this chapter, the authors discuss the history of membranes, the principles of membranes, the types of membranes, the different properties of membranes, and the various membrane methods and their applications of membrane technology. The main applications of membrane operations are in the dairy industry, beverages, egg products and water treatments. In water treatment, the membrane process is a method that relies on a membrane barrier to filter or remove particles from water.