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Membranes
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Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination
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Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2023) | Viewed by 18029

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jaewon Jang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea
Interests: nanomaterials; membrane fabrication; reverse electrodialysis; forward osmosis; battery; ion exchange membrane; nanofiltration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Thanh Tin Nguyen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Environmental Membrane-Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Earth Science and Environmental Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005, Korea
Interests: membrane separation processes (MF, UF, NF, RO and FO); membrane fouling (characterization, mass transport); transport and process modelling in desalination; membrane bioreactor process for micropollutant removal; novel desalination and wastewater reuse technologies and processes; biological processes; resource recovery and wastewater treatment-based microalgae; flat sheet/hollow fiber membrane fabrication

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In an era where the importance of securing clean water gradually increases, we need to develop water treatment and desalination technology intensively. Industrial wastewater contains many pollutants or impurities such as heavy metals, dyes, salts, organic/inorganic compounds, toxic chemicals. These substances should be removed by proper method. The main process techniques for water treatment are precipitation, redox reaction,  anaerobic process, nanofiltration (NF), and membrane-based separation method. Most of these processes are technical fields of chemical engineering, but in NF or membrane-based separation processes, the membrane plays a key role. The membranes for this process need various properties according to the target substance, and there is still much room for development. In particular, in recent years, since the components to be removed in wastewater have become diverse and extraordinary, there is a limit to purification with the existing general membranes, and the need to apply nanomaterials is increasing. Another important method for obtaining water resources is desalination. Desalination can be carried out through reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis, pervaporation, forward osmosis (FO), and multiple combined processes using various commercial membranes. However, the membranes for desalination still have room for further innovations. It is possible to improve some properties or overall performances of the membrane by introducing new materials or surface/structure engineering. Nanomaterials can be vital to overcoming obstacles in water treatment and desalination technology, such as the trade-off relationship between water permeance and solute rejection, chemical/mechanical damage in specific pH, fouling problems, etc. Considering the above, we need to focus on researching nanomaterial-based membranes for water treatment and desalination at this chance.

Therefore, in this special issue, we welcome any research articles, communications, and critical/comprehensive reviews related to the membrane fabrication (or analysis) and fouling study that applies to water treatment and desalination. More specifically, researches on the membranes using nanomaterials, engineering of the conventional membrane, simulation/calculation related to water treatment and desalination process, transport phenomena, fouling analysis, anti-fouling technique would be the proper items for this special issue.

  • Nanomaterial-based membranes for water treatment (nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, microfiltration, and electrodialysis, etc.).
  • Nanomaterial-based membranes for desalination (reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, pervaporation, forward osmosis, etc.).
  • Transport phenomena in the membranes for water treatment and desalination cases.
  • Anti-fouling techniques in water treatment and desalination cases.
  • Fouling analysis in the membranes for water treatment and desalination cases.
  • Simulation/calculation of interactions between membrane and substance for water treatment and desalination cases.

Dr. Jaewon Jang
Dr. Thanh Tin Nguyen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Nanomaterials
  • Membrane fabrication
  • Water treatment
  • Desalination
  • Anti-fouling
  • Fouling characterization
  • Transport phenomena
  • Purification
  • Separation

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 3662 KiB  
Article
Fabrication and Investigation of Acid Functionalized CNT Blended Nanocomposite Hollow Fiber Membrane for High Filtration and Antifouling Performance in Ultrafiltration Process
by Eunmok Yang, Shinyun Park, Yeji Kim, Numan Yanar and Heechul Choi
Membranes 2023, 13(1), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13010070 - 05 Jan 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1624
Abstract
In this study, we fabricated a nanocomposite polyethersulfone (PES) HF membrane by blending acid functionalized carbon nanotubes (FCNT) to address the issue of reduced membrane life, increased energy consumption, and operating costs due to low permeability and membrane fouling in the ultrafiltration process. [...] Read more.
In this study, we fabricated a nanocomposite polyethersulfone (PES) HF membrane by blending acid functionalized carbon nanotubes (FCNT) to address the issue of reduced membrane life, increased energy consumption, and operating costs due to low permeability and membrane fouling in the ultrafiltration process. Additionally, we investigated the effect of FCNT blending on the membrane in terms of the physicochemical properties of the membrane and the filtration and antifouling performance. The FCNT/PES nanocomposite HF membrane exhibited increased water permeance from 110.1 to 194.3 LMH/bar without sacrificing rejection performance and increased the flux recovery ratio from 89.0 to 95.4%, compared to a pristine PES HF membrane. This study successfully developed a high filtration and antifouling polymer-based HF membrane by blending FCNT. Furthermore, it was validated that blending FCNT into the membrane enhances the filtration and antifouling performance in the ultrafiltration process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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15 pages, 2338 KiB  
Article
Novel Polyelectrolyte-Based Draw Solute That Overcomes the Trade-Off between Forward Osmosis Performance and Ease of Regeneration
by Daryoush Emadzadeh, Amirsajad Atashgar and Boguslaw Kruczek
Membranes 2022, 12(12), 1270; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121270 - 15 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1311
Abstract
Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging technology for seawater and brackish desalination, wastewater treatment, and other applications, such as food processing, power generation, and protein and pharmaceutical enrichment. However, choosing a draw solute (DS) that provides an appropriate driving force and, at the [...] Read more.
Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging technology for seawater and brackish desalination, wastewater treatment, and other applications, such as food processing, power generation, and protein and pharmaceutical enrichment. However, choosing a draw solute (DS) that provides an appropriate driving force and, at the same time, is easy to recover, is challenging. In this study, water-soluble poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS) was modified by a high-electrical-conductivity 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) monomer to fabricate a novel draw solute (mPSS). FO tests with the CTA membrane in the active layer facing the feed solution (AL-FS) orientation, using a 50 mS/cm aqueous solution of synthesized solute and distilled water as a feed solution exhibited a water flux of 4.2 L h−1 m−2 and a corresponding reverse solute flux of 0.19 g h−1 m−2. The FO tests with the same membrane, using a 50 mS/cm NaCl control draw solution, yielded a lower water flux of 3.6 L h−1 m−2 and a reverse solute flux of 4.13 g h−1 m−2, which was more than one order of magnitude greater. More importantly, the synthesized draw solute was easily regenerated using a commercial ultrafiltration membrane (PS35), which showed over 96% rejection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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18 pages, 6671 KiB  
Article
Performance Comparison of Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis Cell Using Channel and PTL Flow Fields through Three-Dimensional Two-Phase Flow Simulation
by Seongsoon Park, Woojung Lee and Youngseung Na
Membranes 2022, 12(12), 1260; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121260 - 13 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2808
Abstract
Water electrolysis technology is required to overcome the intermittency of renewable energy sources. Among various water electrolysis methods, the proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) cell has the advantages of a fast response and high current density. However, high capital costs have hindered [...] Read more.
Water electrolysis technology is required to overcome the intermittency of renewable energy sources. Among various water electrolysis methods, the proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) cell has the advantages of a fast response and high current density. However, high capital costs have hindered the commercialization of PEMWE; therefore, it is important to lower the price of bipolar plates, which make PEMWE expensive. In addition, since the flow field inscribed in the bipolar plate significantly influences the performance, it is necessary to design the enhanced pattern. A three-dimensional two-phase flow model was used to analyze the two-phase flow and electrochemical reactions of the PEMWE anode. In order to compare the experimental results with the simulation, experiments were conducted according to the flow rate, and the results were in good agreement. First, as a result of comparing the performance of the channel and PTL (porous transport layer) flow fields, the channel flow field showed better performance than the PTL flow field. For the channel flow field, the higher the ratio of the channel width-to-rib width and the permeability of PTL, the performance got better. In the case of the PTL flow field, with the increased capillary pressure, the performance improved even if the PTL permeability decreased. Next, the direction of gravity affected the performance only when the channel flow field was used, and the X+ and Z+ directions were optimal for the performance. Finally, increasing the inlet flow rate could reduce the difference in performance between the channel and PTL flow fields, but the pressure drop gradually increased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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16 pages, 5474 KiB  
Article
Minimizing Specific Energy Consumption of Electrochemical Hydrogen Compressor at Various Operating Conditions Using Pseudo-2D Model Simulation
by Changhyun Kim, Myungkeun Gong, Jaewon Lee and Youngseung Na
Membranes 2022, 12(12), 1214; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121214 - 01 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1817
Abstract
With the increased usage of hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels, air pollution and global warming have accelerated. To solve this problem, renewable energy, such as hydrogen technology, has gained global attention. Hydrogen has a low volumetric density and thus requires compression technologies at high pressures [...] Read more.
With the increased usage of hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels, air pollution and global warming have accelerated. To solve this problem, renewable energy, such as hydrogen technology, has gained global attention. Hydrogen has a low volumetric density and thus requires compression technologies at high pressures to reduce storage and transportation costs. Techniques for compressing hydrogen include using mechanical and electrochemical hydrogen compressors. Mechanical compressors require higher specific energy consumption than electrochemical hydrogen compressors. Here, we used an electrochemical hydrogen compressor as a pseudo-two-dimensional model focused on electroosmotic drag, water back-diffusion, and hydrogen crossover flux at various temperatures, polymer electrolyte membrane thicknesses, and relative humidity conditions. To date, there have been few studies based on various operating conditions to find the optimal conditions. This study was conducted to determine the optimal parameters under various operating conditions. A numerical analysis demonstrated that the specific energy consumption was low in a specific current density section when the temperature was decreased. At the above-mentioned current density, the specific energy consumption decreased as the temperature increased. The polymer electrolyte membrane thickness yielded similar results. However, according to the relative humidity, it was confirmed that the higher the relative humidity, the lower the specific energy consumption in all of the current density sections. Therefore, when comparing temperatures of 30 °C and 80 °C at 145 A/m2, operating at 30 °C reduces the specific energy consumption by 12.12%. At 3000 A/m2 and 80 °C, the specific energy consumption is reduced by 11.7% compared to operating at 30 °C. Using N117 compared to N211 at 610 A/m2 for polymer electrolyte membranes can reduce specific energy consumption by 10.4%. Using N211 in the 1500 A/m2 condition reduces the specific energy demand by 9.6% compared to N117. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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15 pages, 3838 KiB  
Article
Enhancing the Dye-Rejection Efficiencies and Stability of Graphene Oxide-Based Nanofiltration Membranes via Divalent Cation Intercalation and Mild Reduction
by Hobin Jee, Jaewon Jang, Yesol Kang, Tasnim Eisa, Kyu-Jung Chae, In S. Kim and Euntae Yang
Membranes 2022, 12(4), 402; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12040402 - 02 Apr 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2529
Abstract
Laminar graphene oxide (GO) membranes have demonstrated great potential as next-generation water-treatment membranes because of their outstanding performance and physicochemical properties. However, solute rejection and stability deterioration in aqueous solutions, which are caused by enlarged nanochannels due to hydration and swelling, are regarded [...] Read more.
Laminar graphene oxide (GO) membranes have demonstrated great potential as next-generation water-treatment membranes because of their outstanding performance and physicochemical properties. However, solute rejection and stability deterioration in aqueous solutions, which are caused by enlarged nanochannels due to hydration and swelling, are regarded as serious issues in the use of GO membranes. In this study, we attempt to use the crosslinking of divalent cations to improve resistance against swelling in partially reduced GO membranes. The partially reduced GO membranes intercalated by divalent cations (i.e., Mg2+) exhibited improved dye-rejection efficiencies of up to 98.40%, 98.88%, and 86.41% for methyl orange, methylene blue, and rhodamine B, respectively. In addition, it was confirmed that divalent cation crosslinking and partial reduction could strengthen mechanical stability during testing under harsh aqueous conditions (i.e., strong sonication). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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Review

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32 pages, 14154 KiB  
Review
Nanomembranes-Affiliated Water Remediation: Chronology, Properties, Classification, Challenges and Future Prospects
by Divya Bajpai Tripathy and Anjali Gupta
Membranes 2023, 13(8), 713; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13080713 - 01 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1914
Abstract
Water contamination has become a global crisis, affecting millions of people worldwide and causing diseases and illnesses, including cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis A. Conventional water remediation methods have several challenges, including their inability to remove emerging contaminants and their high cost and environmental [...] Read more.
Water contamination has become a global crisis, affecting millions of people worldwide and causing diseases and illnesses, including cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis A. Conventional water remediation methods have several challenges, including their inability to remove emerging contaminants and their high cost and environmental impact. Nanomembranes offer a promising solution to these challenges. Nanomembranes are thin, selectively permeable membranes that can remove contaminants from water based on size, charge, and other properties. They offer several advantages over conventional methods, including their ability to remove evolving pollutants, low functioning price, and reduced ecological influence. However, there are numerous limitations linked with the applications of nanomembranes in water remediation, including fouling and scaling, cost-effectiveness, and potential environmental impact. Researchers are working to reduce the cost of nanomembranes through the development of more cost-effective manufacturing methods and the use of alternative materials such as graphene. Additionally, there are concerns about the release of nanomaterials into the environment during the manufacturing and disposal of the membranes, and further research is needed to understand their potential impact. Despite these challenges, nanomembranes offer a promising solution for the global water crisis and could have a significant impact on public health and the environment. The current article delivers an overview on the exploitation of various engineered nanoscale substances, encompassing the carbonaceous nanomaterials, metallic, metal oxide and metal–organic frameworks, polymeric nano-adsorbents and nanomembranes, for water remediation. The article emphasizes the mechanisms involved in adsorption and nanomembrane filtration. Additionally, the authors aim to deliver an all-inclusive review on the chronology, technical execution, challenges, restrictions, reusability, and future prospects of these nanomaterials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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35 pages, 9264 KiB  
Review
Recent Advancements in Polyphenylsulfone Membrane Modification Methods for Separation Applications
by Arun Kumar Shukla, Javed Alam and Mansour Alhoshan
Membranes 2022, 12(2), 247; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12020247 - 21 Feb 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3678
Abstract
Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membranes are of fundamental importance for many applications such as water treatment, gas separation, energy, electronics, and biomedicine, due to their low cost, controlled crystallinity, chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability. Numerous research studies have shown that modifying surface properties of PPSU [...] Read more.
Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membranes are of fundamental importance for many applications such as water treatment, gas separation, energy, electronics, and biomedicine, due to their low cost, controlled crystallinity, chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability. Numerous research studies have shown that modifying surface properties of PPSU membranes influences their stability and functionality. Therefore, the modification of the PPSU membrane surface is a pressing issue for both research and industrial communities. In this review, various surface modification methods and processes along with their mechanisms and performance are considered starting from 2002. There are three main approaches to the modification of PPSU membranes. The first one is bulk modifications, and it includes functional groups inclusion via sulfonation, amination, and chloromethylation. The second is blending with polymer (for instance, blending nanomaterials and biopolymers). Finally, the third one deals with physical and chemical surface modifications. Obviously, each method has its own limitations and advantages that are outlined below. Generally speaking, modified PPSU membranes demonstrate improved physical and chemical properties and enhanced performance. The advancements in PPSU modification have opened the door for the advance of membrane technology and multiple prospective applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterial-Based Membranes for Water Treatment and Desalination)
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