A Review on Applications of Membrane Distillation (MD) Process for Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The growing scarcity of fresh water is driving the implementation of wastewater treatment and water reuse on an increasingly large scale. Various methods have been developed and used for water reuse from wastewater; however, the membrane distillation (MD) process, as a promising separation technology, has recently gained more attention. The MD process is a non-isothermal membrane-based separation used in various applications, especially for desalination and water/wastewater treatment. Compared with other separation processes, the MD process possesses several unique characteristics such as total (100%) rejection, intensive to feed concentration, mild operating conditions as well as stable performance at high contaminant concentrations. Due to the high fresh water demand in recent years, extensive researches have been devoted to the MD process in areas of water/wastewater treatment. The present paper offers a comprehensive MD state of the art review covering the MD applications for wastewater treatment and water reuse.