Molecular Sieving Hollow Fiber Ceramic Membranes for Reverse Osmosis-Nanofiltration Applications. Water Treatment Technology Program Report, No. 40

摘要

Reverse osmosis (RO) and to a lesser degree nanofiltration (NF) are well established membrane technologies for the treatment of water in a variety of applications. Today, only polymeric RO/NF membranes are commercially available. Current research focuses on the development of lower pressure, chlorine resistant membranes that are less susceptible to fouling and can tolerate temperatures in excess of 70 to 80DGC. Incremental improvements in any one of these areas will serve the global objectives of the Bureau of Water Reclamation, specifically to (i) reduce membrane system operating costs, (ii) reduce chemical usage, (iii) broaden the spectrum of treatable wastewater and other waste liquid systems, and in general (iv) expand the range of applicability of RO/NF technology. However, fulfilling these objectives via polymeric RO/NF membrane technology will be limited and slow. Typically, improvements in membrane performance in one area result at the expense of performance in other areas. Hence, there are inherent contradictions in the research focuses of polymeric membranes. A new direction in RO/NF membrane technology is required to achieve these goals.