Fouling, performance and cost analysis of membrane-based water desalination technologies: A critical review

Lebea N Nthunya; Mokgadi F Bopape; Oranso T Mahlangu; Bhekie B Mamba; Bart Van der Bruggen; Cejna Anna Quist-Jensen; Heidi Richards

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113922

Fouling, performance and cost analysis of membrane-based water desalination technologies: A critical review

J Environ Manage. 2022 Jan 1:301:113922. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113922. Epub 2021 Oct 11.

Authors

Lebea N Nthunya¹, Mokgadi F Bopape², Oranso T Mahlangu³, Bhekie B Mamba³, Bart Van der Bruggen⁴, Cejna Anna Quist-Jensen⁵, Heidi Richards⁶

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Sciences Institute, School of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa. Electronic address: nthunyalebea@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag x680, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa; Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium.
³ Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Florida 1709, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium.
⁵ Center for Membrane Technology, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7H, 9220, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁶ Molecular Sciences Institute, School of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.

PMID: 34731960
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113922

Abstract

While water is a key resource required to sustain life, freshwater sources and aquifers are being depleted at an alarming rate. As a mitigation strategy, saline water desalination is commonly used to supplement the available water resources beyond direct water supply. This is achieved through effective advanced water purification processes enabled to handle complex matrix of saline wastewater. Membrane technology has been extensively evaluated for water desalination. This includes the use of reverse osmosis (RO) (the most mature membrane technology for desalination), pervaporation (PV), electrodialysis (ED), membrane distillation (MD), and membrane crystallization (MCr). Though nanofiltration (NF) is not mainly applied for desalination purposes, it is included in the reviewed processes because of its ability to reach 90% salt rejection efficiency for water softening. However, its comparison with other technologies is not provided since NF cannot be used for removal of NaCl during desalination. Remarkably, membrane processes remain critically affected by several challenges including membrane fouling. Moreover, capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX) are the key factors influencing the establishment of water desalination processes. Therefore, this paper provides a concise and yet comprehensive review of the membrane processes used to desalt saline water. Furthermore, the successes and failures of each process are critically reviewed. Finally, the CAPEX and OPEX of these water desalination processes are reviewed and compared. Based on the findings of this review, MD is relatively comparable to RO in terms of process performance achieving 99% salt rejections. Also, high salt rejections are reported on ED and PV. The operation and maintenance (O&M) costs remain lower in ED. Notably, the small-scale MD OPEX falls below that of RO. However, the large-scale O&M in MD is rarely reported due to its slow industrial growth, thus making RO the most preferred in the current water desalination markets.

Keywords: Cost analysis; Electrodialysis; Membrane distillation; Pervaporation; Reverse osmosis; Water desalination.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Costs and Cost Analysis
Osmosis
Seawater*
Technology
Water Purification*