Research, development and application of membrane technology in the pulp and paper industry

摘要

The membrane technology has been commercially applied in the pulp and paper industry as early as the 1970's and is now commonly used in several areas such as for the treatment of freshwater, chemical recovery and treatment of bleaching effluents. The membrane technology can also be used to complement or improve water recycling and closing the loop in the pulp and paper industry. Even so, the commercial application of membrane technology in the pulp and paper industry consists of less than 2% of the global membrane market, indicating that there are still a lot of areas to be explored. This paper is based on a literature review conducted on publications for the past 10 years using three databases, the ScienceDirect, Scopus and Compendex, apart from other pulp and paper conferences such as the APPITA and TAPPI. The background, research, development, applications and challenges faced by several membrane technologies such as the reverse osmosis (RO), microfiltration (MF), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF) and membrane bioreactor (MBR) in different areas of the pulp and paper industry are presented. More recent and potential advancements such as the electrodialysis (ED) and membrane distillation (MD) and their potential use in the pulp and paper industry are also highlighted in this paper. Results indicated that UF and MBR are favoured in terms of R&D and application by the pulp and paper industry. Several pilot scale studies and commercial application are also presented. The low application of membrane technology in the pulp and paper industry is mainly due to the high cost and other problems such as fouling. With more research being concentrated in exploring other potential membrane technologies along with process optimisation, the membrane technology will likely become a more economical, technically feasible and environmentally friendly option for the pulp and paper industry.