Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of studies on electrodialysis (ED) applications in wastewater treatment, outlining the current status and the future prospect. ED is a membrane process of separation under the action of an electric field, where ions are selectively transported across ion-exchange membranes. ED of both conventional or unconventional fashion has been tested to treat several waste or spent aqueous solutions, including effluents from various industrial processes, municipal wastewater or salt water treatment plants, and animal farms. Properties such as selectivity, high separation efficiency, and chemical-free treatment make ED methods adequate for desalination and other treatments with significant environmental benefits. ED technologies can be used in operations of concentration, dilution, desalination, regeneration, and valorisation to reclaim wastewater and recover water and/or other products, e.g., heavy metal ions, salts, acids/bases, nutrients, and organics, or electrical energy. Intense research activity has been directed towards developing enhanced or novel systems, showing that zero or minimal liquid discharge approaches can be techno-economically affordable and competitive. Despite few real plants having been installed, recent developments are opening new routes for the large-scale use of ED techniques in a plethora of treatment processes for wastewater.

The mass production of lithium-ion batteries and lithium-rich e-products that are required for electric vehicles, energy storage devices, and cloud-connected electronics is driving an unprecedented demand for lithium resources. Current lithium production technologies, in which extraction and purification are typically achieved by hydrometallurgical routes, possess strong environmental impact but are also energy-intensive and require extensive operational capabilities. The emergence of selective membrane materials and associated electro-processes offers an avenue to reduce these energy and cost penalties and create more sustainable lithium production approaches. In this review, lithium recovery technologies are discussed considering the origin of the lithium, which can be primary sources such as minerals and brines or e-waste sources generated from recycling of batteries and other e-products. The relevance of electro-membrane processes for selective lithium recovery is discussed as well as the potential and shortfalls of current electro-membrane methods.

The fruit juice industry is one of the food sectors that has invested the most in the implementation of new technologies, such as non-thermal technologies. Among them, membrane processes are considered today well-established separation techniques to support the production and marketing of innovative fruit juices designed to exploit the sensory characteristics and nutritional peculiarities of fresh fruits. Pressure-driven membrane operations, membrane distillation, osmotic distillation and pervaporation have been widely investigated in the last few decades to replace conventional technologies used in fruit juice processing industry (i.e., clarification, stabilization, concentration and recovery of aroma compounds). This paper will review the significant progresses on the use of membrane-based operations in fruit juice processing industry in the light of the growing interest towards products with improved safety, quality and nutritional value and sustainable processes characterized by low energy consumption and low environmental impact.

The application of membrane processes in various fields has now undergone accelerated developments, despite the presence of some hurdles impacting the process efficiency. Fouling is arguably the main hindrance for a wider implementation of polymeric membranes, particularly in pressure-driven membrane processes, causing higher costs of energy, operation, and maintenance. Radiation induced graft copolymerization (RIGC) is a powerful versatile technique for covalently imparting selected chemical functionalities to membranes’ surfaces, providing a potential solution to fouling problems. This article aims to systematically review the progress in modifications of polymeric membranes by RIGC of polar monomers onto membranes using various low- and high-energy radiation sources (UV, plasma, γ-rays, and electron beam) for fouling prevention. The feasibility of the modification method with respect to physico-chemical and antifouling properties of the membrane is discussed. Furthermore, the major challenges to the modified membranes in terms of sustainability are outlined and the future research directions are also highlighted. It is expected that this review would attract the attention of membrane developers, users, researchers, and scientists to appreciate the merits of using RIGC for modifying polymeric membranes to mitigate the fouling issue, increase membrane lifespan, and enhance the membrane system efficiency.

The rapid urbanization and water shortage impose an urgent need in improving sustainable water management without compromising the socioeconomic development all around the world. In this context, reclaimed wastewater has been recognized as a sustainable water management strategy since it represents an alternative water resource for non-potable or (indirect) potable use. The conventional wastewater remediation approaches for the removal of different emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals, dyes, metal ions, etc.) are unable to remove/destroy them completely. Hybrid membrane processes (HMPs) are a powerful solution for removing emerging pollutants from wastewater. On this aspect, the present paper focused on HMPs obtained by the synergic coupling of biological and/or chemical reaction driven processes with membrane processes, giving a critical overview and particular emphasis on some case studies reported in the pertinent literature. By using these processes, a satisfactory quality of treated water can be achieved, permitting its sustainable reuse in the hydrologic cycle while minimizing environmental and economic impact.

The preparation of Li2CO3 from brine with a high mass ratio of Mg/Li is a worldwide technology problem. Membrane separation is considered as a green and efficient method. In this paper, a comprehensive Li2CO3 preparation process, which involves electrochemical intercalation-deintercalation, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, evaporation, and precipitation, was constructed. Concretely, the electrochemical intercalation-deintercalation method shows excellent separation performance of lithium and magnesium, and the mass ratio of Mg/Li decreased from the initial 58.5 in the brine to 0.93 in the obtained lithium-containing anolyte. Subsequently, the purification and concentration are performed based on nanofiltration and reverse osmosis technologies, which remove mass magnesium and enrich lithium, respectively. After further evaporation and purification, industrial-grade Li2CO3 can be prepared directly. The direct recovery of lithium from the high Mg/Li brine to the production of Li2CO3 can reach 68.7%, considering that most of the solutions are cycled in the system, the total recovery of lithium will be greater than 85%. In general, this new integrated lithium extraction system provides a new perspective for preparing lithium carbonate from high Mg/Li brine.

Water supply and water treatment are of major concern all around the world. In this respect, membrane processes are increasingly used and reported for a large range of applications. Desalination processes by membranes are well-established technologies with many desalination plants implemented in coastal areas. Natural water treatment is also well implemented to provide purified water for growing population. This review covers various aspects of desalination: membranes and modules, plants, fouling (scaling, biofouling, algal blooms), cleaning, pretreatment (conventional and membrane treatments), energy and environmental issues, renewable energies, boron removal and brine disposal. Treatment of natural water focuses on removal of natural organic matter, arsenic, iron, nitrate, fluoride, pesticides and herbicides, pharmaceutical and personal care products. This review underlines that desalination and natural water treatment require identical knowledge of membrane fouling, construction of large plants, cleaning procedures, energy and environmental issues, and that these two different fields can learn from each other.

In this study, an efficient membrane composed of polysulfone and graphene oxide was developed and evaluated for its efficacy in chromium adsorption. Characterization of the synthesized membrane involved comprehensive analyses including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to assess its structural properties. Subsequently, the membrane’s performance in removing chromium from aqueous solutions was scrutinized, considering key operational parameters. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was employed to optimize parameters. Additionally, the pH parameter revealed the most significant ( F -value = 184.25) on the amount of chromium removal by the membrane process. The interaction between pH and contact time is the most significant among all interactions, with an F -value of 40.99. Moreover, the high R 2 (97.58%) and adjusted R 2 (95.41%) indicate the model effectively explains variance with minimal overfitting, confirming its strong predictive capability. Under optimized conditions (pH 5, initial concentration of 30 mg/L, and contact time of 40 min), the polysulfone/graphene oxide membrane exhibited an impressive removal efficiency of 81.1%. This study highlights the potential of polysulfone/graphene oxide membranes in effectively separating chromium from aqueous mediums, thereby suggesting a promising avenue for future research in addressing heavy metal pollution.√

Wastewater in petrochemical processes and produced water from oil and gas production remain a challenge for the industry to minimize their impact on the environment. Recent research and development of treatment technologies for petrochemical wastewater and produced water from oil and gas industries published in 2018 were summarized in this annual review. Great efforts and progresses were made in various treatment options, including membrane processes, advanced oxidation, biological systems, adsorption, coagulation, and combined processes.

In this study, antioxidant (DPPH and metal chelating), DNA cleavage, biofilm, and antimicrobial properties of extracted phenol from the walnut green husk (WGH) and its different concentrate and permeate samples were evaluated. For maximum phenolic compound extraction from the WGH first, the effects of solvent type (deionized water, methanol, n-hexane, acetone, and ethanol), solvent temperature (25–75 °C), and extraction time (0.5–24 h) were optimized. Then to concentrate phenolic compounds a pressure-driven membrane process was used with four different membrane types. The phenol contents of the concentrate samples were found to be microfiltration (MF) concentrate 4400 mg/L, ultrafiltration (UF) concentrate 4175 mg/L, nanofiltration (NF) concentrate 8155 mg/L, and reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate 8100 mg/L. LC-MSMS was used to determine the quantification of phenolic compounds in permeate and concentrate streams. In addition, all of the concentrate samples with high phenol content showed a high antioxidant activity as 100% with MF concentrate, UF concentrate, NF concentrated and RO concentrated. Likewise, concentrate samples were found to have very high antibiofilm activity as 82.86% for NF concentrate againts S. aureus, 85.80% for NF concentrate against P. aureginosa, 80.95% for RO concentrate against S. aureus, and 83.61% for RO-concentrate against P. aureginosa. When the antimicrobial activity of the extracted phenol from WGH and its different concentrate and permeate samples were evaluated by micro dilution and disk diffusion methods, it was found that the ability of the concentrate samples to inhibit bacterial growth was much higher than permeate ones. In addition, extracted phenol from WGH and its different concentrate and permeate samples showed significant DNA nuclease activity.