Although thermal desalination technology provides potable water in arid regions (e.g., Israel and the Gulf), its relatively high cost has limited application to less arid regions with large populations (e.g., California). Energy-intensive distillation is currently being replaced with less costly pressure- and electrically driven membrane-based processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) is a preferred memb...

The application of membrane technology in water and wastewater treatment is increasing due to stringent water quality standards. Nanofiltration (NF) is one of the widely used membrane processes for water and wastewater treatment in addition to other applications such as desalination. NF has replaced reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in many applications due to lower energy consumption and higher f...

Brines produced by desalination processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis reversal (EDR) and ion-exchange (IX) holds pollution potential for the water environment if not properly handled. These brines contain a high water content (95–98%) and chemicals that could possibly be recovered for reuse. Therefore, direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) which has the potential for wat...

Photovoltaic assisted reverse osmosis (PV-RO) has been proven an efficient renewable energy-based desalination technique to provide drinkable water, especially in remote areas. In this manuscript, a simulation based RO design system was adopted evaluate the performance for three cities of Pakistan, that is, Lahore, Hasil Pur, and Faisalabad. The inlet concentration Faisalabad reduced from 1495,...

This Critical Review on environmental concerns of desalination plants suggests that planning and monitoring stages are critical aspects of successful management and operation of plants. The site for the desalination plants should be selected carefully and should be away from residential areas particularly for forward planning for possible future expansions. The concerning issues identified are ...

Sea-water desalination has emerged as the key alternative to overcome demand–supply gap of potable water, worldwide. This paper aims to carry out a technology review of sea-water desalination, technologies in an integrated framework of economic, environmental and ecological analyses. The economic analysis here refers to a project/technology development effort analysis in the context of national...