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Recent Advances in Membrane Materials and Membrane Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment (Volume II)

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Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2023) | Viewed by 8394

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jaewoo Lee

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Guest Editor

Department of Polymer-Nano Science and Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea
Interests: wastewater treatment; desalination; biogas recovery; membrane fabrication; antifouling; biofouling; quorum quenching; nanomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nations across the globe have sought to develop green economies through innovations. To move to a green economy, innovations in sustainable water management are vital, considering that water is intricately linked to other essential resources while contributing to biodiversity. However, water shortage is becoming worse over time due to the short supply and the rapid increase in demand for clean water caused by the unprecedented climate change and an exploding population. As a result, clean water supply has come to the fore as a major issue. To address these issues, many researchers have dedicated enormous efforts to developing novel membranes and membrane processes for water treatment.

This Special Issue aims to share recent advances in membrane materials and membrane processes for water and wastewater treatment. The topics include but are not limited to membrane fabrications using novel materials (e.g., mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs), metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), and nanofibers) and innovations in the existing membrane processes related to reverse and forward osmosis (RO and FO), pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), membrane distillation (MD), wastewater treatment using membrane bioreactors (MBRs), biogas recovery using membrane contactors, and membrane capacitive deionization. All interested authors are invited to submit their original research papers, review papers, and perspectives on the topics.

Dr. Jaewoo Lee
Guest Editor

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 2700 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
mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs)
metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)
porous nanomaterials
hollow-fiber membrane
electrospin/electrospun
nanofibers
thin-film composite
desalination
reverse and forward osmosis
pressure-retarded osmosis
membrane distillation
wastewater treatment
membrane bioreactor
membrane fouling
biogas recovery
membrane contractor
membrane capacitive deionization
disinfection

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 5225 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Residence Time Distribution in a Transient Inline Spiking System: Modeling, Experiments, and Simulations

by Minsun Hwang, Junsuk Wang and Seon Yeop Jung

Membranes 2023, 13(4), 375; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040375 - 25 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1209

Abstract

A transient inline spiking system is a promising tool for evaluating the performance of a virus filter in continuous operation. For better implementation of the system, we performed a systematic analysis to understand the residence time distribution (RTD) of inert tracers in the system. We aimed to understand the RTD of a salt spike, not retained onto or within the membrane pore, to focus on its mixing and spreading within the processing units. A concentrated NaCl solution was spiked into a feed stream as the spiking duration (

t_{s p i k e}

) was varied from 1 to 40 min. A static mixer was employed to mix the salt spike with the feed stream, which then passed through a single-layered nylon membrane inserted in a filter holder. The RTD curve was obtained by measuring the conductivity of the collected samples. An analytical model, the PFR-2CSTR model, was employed to predict the outlet concentration from the system. The slope and peak of the RTD curves were well-aligned with the experimental findings when

τ_{P F R}

= 4.3 min,

τ_{C S T R 1}

= 4.1 min, and

τ_{C S T R 2}

= 1.0 min. CFD simulations were performed to describe the flow and transport of the inert tracers through the static mixer and the membrane filter. The RTD curve spanned more than 30 min, much longer than

t_{s p i k e}

, since solutes were dispersed within processing units. The flow characteristics in each processing unit correlated with the RTD curves. Our detailed analysis of the transient inline spiking system would be helpful for implementing this protocol in continuous bioprocessing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Membrane Materials and Membrane Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment (Volume II))

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20 pages, 2183 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Evaluation of Forward Osmosis and Low-Pressure Reverse Osmosis with a Tubular Membrane for the Concentration of Municipal Wastewater and the Production of Biogas

by Mónica Salamanca, Laura Palacio, Antonio Hernandez, Mar Peña and Pedro Prádanos

Membranes 2023, 13(3), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13030266 - 23 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1981

Abstract

Currently, freshwater scarcity is one of the main issues that the world population has to face. To address this issue, new wastewater treatment technologies have been developed such as membrane processes. Among them, due to the energy disadvantages of pressure-driven membrane processes, Forward Osmosis (FO) and Low-Pressure Reverse Osmosis (LPRO) have been introduced as promising alternatives. In this study, the behavior of a 2.3 m² tubular membrane TFO-D90 when working with municipal wastewater has been studied. Its performances have been evaluated and compared in two operating modes such as FO and LPRO. Parameters such as fouling, flow rates, water flux, draw solution concentration, organic matter concentration, as well as its recovery have been studied. In addition, the biogas production capacity has been evaluated with the concentrated municipal wastewater obtained from each process. The results of this study indicate that the membrane can work in both processes (FO and LPRO) but, from the energy and productivity point of view, FO is considered more appropriate mainly due to its lower fouling level. This research may offer a new point of view on low-energy and energy recovery wastewater treatment and the applicability of FO and LPRO for wastewater concentration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Membrane Materials and Membrane Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment (Volume II))

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Graphical abstract

16 pages, 5010 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Graphene Oxide-Based Membranes Intercalated with an Aromatic Crosslinker for Low-Pressure Nanofiltration

by Hyuntak Kwon, Yongju Park, Euntae Yang and Tae-Hyun Bae

Membranes 2022, 12(10), 966; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12100966 - 2 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1678

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO), a carbonaceous 2D nanomaterial, has received significant interest as a next-generation membrane building block. To fabricate high-performance membranes, an effective strategy involves stacking GO nanosheets in laminated structures, thereby creating unique nanochannel galleries. One outstanding merit of laminar GO membranes is that their permselectivity is readily tunable by tailoring the size of the nanochannels. Here, a high-performance GO-based nanofiltration membrane was developed by intercalating an aromatic crosslinker, α,α/-dichloro-p-xylene (DCX), between the layers in laminated GO nanosheets. Owing to the formation of strong covalent bonds between the crosslinker and the GO, the resulting GO laminate membrane exhibited outstanding structural stability. Furthermore, due to the precisely controlled and enlarged interlayer spacing distance of the developed DCX-intercalated GO membrane, it achieved an over two-fold enhancement in water permeability (11 ± 2 LMH bar⁻¹) without sacrificing the rejection performance for divalent ions, contrary to the case with a pristine GO membrane. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Membrane Materials and Membrane Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment (Volume II))

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Review

Jump to: Research

22 pages, 3964 KiB

Open AccessReview

Forward Osmosis Membranes: The Significant Roles of Selective Layer

by Miao Tian, Tao Ma, Kunli Goh, Zhiqiang Pei, Jeng Yi Chong and Yi-Ning Wang

Membranes 2022, 12(10), 955; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12100955 - 29 Sep 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2905

Abstract

Forward osmosis (FO) is a promising separation technology to overcome the challenges of pressure-driven membrane processes. The FO process has demonstrated profound advantages in treating feeds with high salinity and viscosity in applications such as brine treatment and food processing. This review discusses the advancement of FO membranes and the key membrane properties that are important in real applications. The membrane substrates have been the focus of the majority of FO membrane studies to reduce internal concentration polarization. However, the separation layer is critical in selecting the suitable FO membranes as the feed solute rejection and draw solute back diffusion are important considerations in designing large-scale FO processes. In this review, emphasis is placed on developing FO membrane selective layers with a high selectivity. The effects of porous FO substrates in synthesizing high-performance polyamide selective layer and strategies to overcome the substrate constraints are discussed. The role of interlayer in selective layer synthesis and the benefits of nanomaterial incorporation will also be reviewed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Membrane Materials and Membrane Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment (Volume II))

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