Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Desalination
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

A review on RO membrane technology: Developments and challenges

Seema S. Shenvi a, Arun M. Isloor a,⁎, A.F. Ismail b,⁎
a
Membrane Technology Laboratory, Chemistry Department, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575 025, India
b
Advanced Membrane Technology Research Center (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

H I G H L I G H T S

• RO based desalination is one of the most important technologies for the production of fresh water.
• This review highlights about important milestones in RO technology.
• The material property, mainly dominates the RO process.
• Few of the problems associated with RO technology is also discussed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Reverse osmosis (RO) based desalination is one of the most important and widely recognized technologies for
Received 1 September 2014 production of fresh water from saline water. Since its conception and initiation, a significant development has
Received in revised form 27 December 2014 been witnessed in this technology w.r.t. materials, synthesis techniques, modification and modules over the
Accepted 29 December 2014
last few decades. The working of a RO plant inclusive of the pretreatment and post-treatment procedures has
Available online 7 February 2015
been briefly discussed in the article. The main objective of this review is to highlight the historical milestones
Keywords:
achieved in RO technology in terms of membrane performance, the developments seen over the last few years
RO membrane and the challenges perceived.
Flux The material properties of the membrane dominate the performance of a RO process. The emergence of nano-
Nano-technology technology and biomimetic RO membranes as the futuristic tools is capable of revolutionizing the entire RO pro-
Desalination cess. Hence the development of nano-structured membranes involving thin film nano-composite membranes,
carbon-nanotube membranes and aquaporin-based membranes has been focussed in detail. The problems asso-
ciated with a RO process such as scaling, brine disposal and boron removal are briefed and the measures adopted
to address the same have been discussed.
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2. Brief history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3. RO plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4. Reverse osmosis membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1. Polymeric membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1.1. Cellulosic membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1.2. Thin film composite polyamide membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2. Inorganic/ceramic membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3. Mixed matrix membranes (MMM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.4. Biomimetic membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5. Reverse osmosis modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.1. Hollow fiber module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.2. Spiral wound module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

⁎ Corresponding authors.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.M. Isloor).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2014.12.042
0011-9164/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26 11

6. Problems associated with RO process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6.1. Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.2. Boron removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.3. Brine disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7. Conclusion and future opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1. Introduction affecting the desalination market may vary, but the underlying reasons
are due to three P's: Pollution, population and progress. Pollution of the
There has been an increasing demand for fresh water supply owing existing water bodies in addition to climate change, ever increasing
to population boom, global warming and the geography of our planet population and industrial development has stressed upon the need to
[1]. The world population has increased fourfold while the fresh water increase fresh water supply.
consumption has increased ninefold in the 20th century. By the year The heart of RO based separation is the semi permeable membrane
2025, several countries are expected to face severe water crisis; the known as RO membrane which preferentially allows water molecules
problem being manifold critical where water shortage already exists to pass through it, by obstructing the passage of salts under the influ-
(Fig. 1) [2]. The water shortage problems are due to both, man-made ence of externally applied pressure (Fig. 3). The salt and water permeate
and natural causes. through an RO membrane by solution-diffusion transport mechanism
Seawater desalination is one of the leading technologies to cater to [3–5]. When the applied pressure is higher than the osmotic pressure
this problem. It refers to the removal of salts and other minerals from (Δp N Δπ), water starts flowing from concentrated salt solution to dilute
sea water or brackish water in order to obtain pure water for human solution through the membrane.
consumption and for domestic/industrial utilization. Over the past few
decades, a number of technologies have been developed in this regard
J ¼ AðΔp−ΔπÞ
which include multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation, multi-effect distilla-
tion (MED), mechanical vapor pressure compression (MVC) distillation
and membrane based reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis (ED) and where Δπ is the osmotic pressure difference between the feed and the
nanofiltration (NF) process. More than 50% of the installed desalination permeate, Δp is the pressure difference across the membrane and A is
plants worldwide use RO technology because of its simplicity and rela- a constant which describe the physical characteristics of the membrane
tively low energy cost in comparison with distillation based thermal itself. RO membranes are characterized by the average pore size of less
processes. The market for RO based desalination has seen a steady in- than 1 nm and require very high pressures up to 80 bar. Such high pres-
crease due to advancement in RO technology in terms of membrane ma- sures are required to overcome the osmotic pressure of sea water,
terial and energy consumption which has enabled a reduction in cost of which is about 25 bar. The performance of these membranes is usually
pure water production. According to Global Water Intelligence and governed by water flux and salt rejection. An ideal RO membrane has
International Desalination Association, nearly 19.8 billion gallons a salt rejection of more than 99%. NF membranes are also used for desa-
per day fresh water is produced from the installed desalination lination application, but the salt removal capacity is not as high as that of
plants worldwide. The membrane industry is a large segment worth bil- RO membrane. Depending upon the requirement or application of pure
lions (Fig. 2). The leading membrane manufacturing companies are water, either NF or RO membrane can be used.
Hydranautics (Nitto-Denko), DOW-Filmtec, Toray, CSM, Koch Mem- Considering the importance of this technology, abundant work is
brane Systems and GE Osmonics. Millions and millions are spent by carried out very regularly on RO membranes, which necessitate a timely
these companies to cater to the growing water demands. The factors review to keep the academic and industrial world updated. This article
is dedicated to give a comprehensive review of RO process, the materials
used to prepare these membranes, their development over the period of

Fig. 1. People living in areas of water stress, by level of stress, Source: OECD Environmental Fig. 2. Market for desalination technology.
Outlook to 2030. Source: GWI Desal Data.
12 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

1980s, after which the drawbacks of cellulose derived RO membranes

led to continuous research for the development of other substitutes. In
the due course, trials to develop new type of RO membrane by interfa-
cial polycondensation to form a very thin layer were experimented.
Dupont developed hollow fine fiber membrane made out of aromatic
polyamide with pendant sulfonic acid groups. But it was in the year
1985, Cadotte reported the preparation of high performance membrane
using in-situ interfacial polycondensation between poly/monomeric
amine and poly/monomeric functional acid halide [8]. The high perfor-
mance of these polyamide membranes prompted other industries to
adopt this technology over conventional cellulose derived RO mem-
brane. The next stage of development involved crosslinking of these
polyamide films that had five times higher flux and five times better
water quality than that of CA membrane [9]. Today, most of the RO de-
salination plants use polyamide membranes. The technology has further
witnessed different membrane modules such as spiral wound, tubular
and hollow fiber to enhance the separation with higher energy efficien-
cy. Theoretically, 0.7 kWh/m3 should be the minimum energy required
Fig. 3. Schematic illustration of reverse osmosis process. to convert sea water to pure water [10]. However, with the current
choice of materials, modules and technology, the energy consumption
years, the structure of these membranes, plant setup, limitations and still stands between 2 and 5 kWh/m3. The research is thus currently fo-
advantages of the process. cused to increase the pure water recovery rate at lower energy, with the
development of more superior performing, fouling resistant and chlo-
rine resistant membrane. Fig. 4 represents the schematic illustration of
2. Brief history
A) thin film composite PA membrane and B) integrally skinned asym-
metric membrane.
Even though the concept of membrane based separation was known
since eighteenth century, it was never applied for desalination applica-
3. RO plant
tion. The concept of using sea water as a source for fresh water was put
forth by Hassler in the year 1949 in his report entitled ‘The Sea as a
A typical RO system consists of four major processes: Pretreatment,
Source of Fresh Water’ [6]. The process proposed by him for the execu-
high pressure pumping, salt separation and post treatment [11,12].
tion of this idea was not successful, but it encouraged others to pursue
the same. Reid and co-workers first initiated work on RO membranes (i) Pretreatment: Pretreatment of sea water before it reaches the RO
in the year 1957, when they developed cellulose diacetate film showing element is critically essential since untreated sea water is known
salt rejection upto 96% [7]. Unfortunately, these films had very low to contain number of contaminants such as colloidal suspension,
water permeability which was not ideal for practical applications. A matter of biological origin, mud, sand and other suspended
major breakthrough was achieved in 1960, when Loeb and Sourirajan solids. The RO membrane is susceptible to attack from these ele-
developed cellulose diacetate asymmetric membrane. This membrane ments, since its design does not cater with handling of solid sus-
exhibited high flux and salt rejection owing to the thin surface followed pensions [13]. If for some reasons, fine particles block the
by a porous structure. Since then, membrane technology developed membrane, it results in irreversible fouling. This compromises
from mere laboratory tool to a well-developed industrial process the membrane life, performance and the production cost [14,
where potable water was produced for industries and ultrapure water 15]. Ideally, the steps involved in RO pretreatment include:
was produced for semiconductor industries. This trend continued till screening, chlorination, acid treatment, multi-media filtration,

Fig. 4. Schematic illustration of A) Thin film composite PA membrane B) Integrally skinned asymmetric membrane.
 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26 13

microfiltration, and dechlorination [16]. Deep media filters acetylation 2.7 showed salt rejection between 98 and 99% [29]. CA
consisting of anthracite, sand and packing layers screen particles membranes are known to undergo hydrolysis in both alkaline and acidic
up to 5–10 μm. Microfiltration is used to retain particles up to conditions. The operational pH range for these membranes is hence
0.2 μm [13]. Different chemicals used for pretreatment include very narrow (pH 4–6). Slow hydrolysis increased the flux, but reduced
ferric chloride as flocculant, sodium hypochlorite, sulfuric acid, the rejection drastically [30]. Few notable modifications to improve
sodium bisulfite to dechlorinate [17]. the separation capacity have been suggested in literature. Radiation
(ii) Pressurization: High pressure stainless steel pumps are required grafting of styrene to cellulose acetate film by use of carbon tetrachlo-
to pump the pretreated water through the module. The pressure ride increased the flux and salt rejection [31]. Blend of cellulosic mate-
required depends upon the type of feed water whether brackish rials with other functional polymers or monomers is one of the
or sea water. The membrane used in the module should have suf- simplest methods. One such polymer, poly(methylhydrosiloxane)
ficient mechanical strength to sustain such high pressure. The (PMHS) was used by the group Ferjani et al. to improve the surface
high pressure operating pumps make RO process very noisy. and bulk properties of cellulose diacetate RO membranes [32–34]. Addi-
(iii) Separation: The key element of the RO system is the membrane tion of PMHS increased the salt rejection of the membrane by 15–25%,
itself. The membrane acts as a semipermeable barrier which al- but at the same time, 2–3 fold decrease in flux was observed. This was
lows selective passage of water through it retaining salts. At the attributed to the hydrophobic nature of the additive. Polypropylene ad-
applied pressure, some salts from the feed is capable of entering dition to cellulose acetate to prepare composite, resulted in better RO
the permeate side of the membrane. The water may also contain performance [35]. At lower percentage of polypropylene, compatible
certain amount of dissolved gases, which is degasified at post blend was formed leading to decrease in size of aggregate pores, thereby
treatment stage. Conventional RO membranes used cellulose ac- resulting in good desalination performance. Addition of silver nanopar-
etate/diacetate/triacetate as the base material, but these days, the ticles in the active layer helps in improving the biofouling resistance of
market is dominated with ultrathin polyamide membranes. The the membrane with no deterioration in flux and salt rejection [36]. A
commonly used configurations include spiral wound module new family of cellulose derivatives, acetylated cellulose ether (ACE)
and hollow fiber module. was recently synthesized and reported by Han et al. [37] for desalination
(iv) Post-treatment: At post-treatment stage, permeate collected is application. The use of this derivative for preparation of a dense RO
subjected to pH adjustment from acidic to neutral. Other steps membrane, as a microporous support as well as support for PA film
include degasification of carbon dioxide, recarbonation, aeration was well researched. This material possesses higher chemical and me-
to remove H2S and disinfection using chlorine gas or calcium hy- chanical strength than CA and CTA membrane without significant loss
pochlorite [18,19]. Remineralization can be accomplished either in hydrophilicity.
by chemical injection or filtration [12,20,21]. This is necessary The research on cellulosic RO membranes is not much focused upon
to improve the taste of water as well as to meet the final require- these days, since polyamide membranes dominate the desalination
ments of the produced water. Treatment of the brine and other market. Efforts are now directed towards development of more chlorine
chemicals generated during pure water production is also impor- and fouling resistant PA membranes.
tant before its discharge in the sea [22–24].
4.1.2. Thin film composite polyamide membranes
Polyamide (PA) membranes form the most important and widely
used class of RO membranes. The amount of research carried out on in-
4. Reverse osmosis membranes tegrally skinned asymmetric polyamide membrane is very limited [38,
39]. Noteworthy mention of one such membrane is fully aromatic hol-
4.1. Polymeric membranes low fine fiber PA membrane with pendant sulfonic acid groups, devel-
oped by Hoehn and Richter which was commercialized by DuPont
4.1.1. Cellulosic membranes under the name B-9 Permasep [40]. The membrane performed well
Reid in the year 1955, proposed a report titled ‘Osmotic Membranes compared to conventional CA RO membranes, but their susceptibility
for dimineralization’ [6]. Several experiments were carried out by Reid to chlorine attack after prolonged use led to its withdrawal by DuPont.
and his co-workers which were supported by Office of Saline Water After the development of thin film composite (TFC) membrane by
(OSW). They hand casted cellulose acetate membranes using acetone Cadotte [41], abundant research has been carried out on this type of
as the solvent. The salt rejection shown by these membranes was high composite membrane. Immediately after its commercialization by
enough, however the flux was disappointingly low. It was so low that FILMTEC (now DOW-FILMTEC), other companies also started patenting
it had to be expressed in μL/cm2 h which was not suitable for practical TFC membranes [42–44].
applications. In early 1960s, Loeb and Sourirajan developed heat treated A typical PA TFC membrane consists of a polyester material upon
cellulose diacetate (CDA) membrane having asymmetric morphology which a porous substrate (usually polysulfone) is cast for mechanical
[25]. These membranes showed higher flux and rejection than those support. The active layer, which is deposited as a thin film on porous
prepared by Reid [26]. Thus, the first practical RO membrane was layer consists of a crosslinked polyamide layer (Fig. 5). The advantage
invented. Substitute for CDA led to the development of cellulose triace- of asymmetric TFC membrane, compared to integral asymmetric mem-
tate (CTA) membranes. CTA exhibited more thermal and chemical resis- brane is that it allows optimization of the individual components com-
tance in addition to resistance towards biological attack which was the prising it. Research is carried on these membranes in terms of choice
major drawback of CDA membranes. Later, blend of CDA and CTA was of substrate and their modification, choice of additives, choice of mono-
suggested to overcome the problem of compaction generally faced by mers and their modification for optimization of thin film, to enhance the
CTA membranes when operated at high pressures [27]. Over the years, permeation, salt rejection and fouling resistance. The following section
polyamide membranes have surpassed cellulosic membranes owing to deals with the ongoing research on TFC membranes. A number of re-
their superior performance. However, CA membranes still enjoy the view papers have been published that deal with the development of
popularity of being more chlorine resistant (tolerance limit 1 ppm) composite membranes for RO applications. For a more detailed review
than polyamide, and occupies a small market of desalination. The per- on TFC membrane, readers are requested to refer [8,45–48].
formance of CA membranes is strongly affected by degree of acetylation.
An increase in degree of acetylation indicated an increase in water to 4.1.2.1. Choice and modification of substrate. Even though the main role of
salt permeation ratio but resulted in very low flux values [28]. Commer- the substrate is to provide mechanical strength to the PA film to with-
cial CA membranes having 40 wt.% acetate content, and degree of stand high operating pressures of a RO process, the choice and nature
14 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

Fig. 5. SEM image of the surface and a cross section of a TFC membrane [49].

of the support is very important as it co-defines the interface where in- PEG groups which have large co-ordination number of water molecules
terfacial polymerization occurs [50]. Fine tuning of the substrate proper- at the surface. In-situ LSMM showed superior performance than con-
ties is essential to form a defect free PA film. To achieve this, the surface ventional ex-situ LSMM due to its better dispersion in the PA layer. Ad-
of the substrate should be as smooth as possible. dition of sulfated cyclodextrin by Wu et al. increased the negative
Modification is possible either by addition of additives or by plasma charged density of the membrane surface, resulting in higher salt rejec-
treatment. From water soluble hydrophilic additives such as PVP and tion and significant improvement in antifouling performance [70]. Ex-
PEG, the focus is shifting to inorganic fillers as better additives [51,52]. perimental results indicated that membrane surfaces anchored with
A smoother and thicker surface has been reported by this modification. hydrophilic polymers such as poly(methacrylic acid) and polyacryl-
Also, there is improvement in permeability and antifouling behavior of amide via plasma treatment have superior bio-fouling resistance and
the membrane. Membranes with water soluble hydrophilic additives cleaning effectiveness [76]. Hydrophilization through zwitter ions is
give relatively thinner and less permeable PA layers. Modification also also an attractive option to improve the fouling resistance. Higher ener-
involves addition of solvent in the coagulation bath during phase inver- gy is required to remove water bound on zwitterionic surface, since
sion, which increases the porosity of the membranes [53]. Permanent binding between them occurs by ionic solvation and not by hydrogen
hydrophilicity can be imparted to the membrane surface by plasma bonding [82–85]. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) coated silver nanoparticles
treatment [54–56]. Water permeability and chlorine resistance of the were reported by Rahaman et al. recently, to form layer by layer assem-
membranes is enhanced by this modification. Polysulfone (PSf) is wide- bly consisting of polyacrylic acid and PEI. The biocidal property of silver
ly used support material because of its ease of availability, low cost, nanoparticles, in addition to the hydrophilic membrane surface grafted
thermal, mechanical and chemical stability. The other polymers which with polymer brushes of poly(sulfobetaine) and poly(dimethylsilox-
can be used as a substitute for PSf include poly(ether ether ketone), pol- ane) improved the fouling resistance of the resultant membranes [86].
yimide, Polyvinyl difluoride, poly (phthalazinone ether ketone) and The modified membranes showed slight decrease in flux due to increase
polypropylene [50,55,57,58]. Recently, the use of hydrolyzed CA/CTA in thickness of the active layer by LBL assembly which increased the re-
has been explored as a hydrophilic support membrane [59]. The mem- sistance of water flow through the membrane. Coating of natural mate-
brane displayed NaCl rejection up to 97%. Covalent bond formation be- rials like sericin on PA membrane changes its surface properties and
tween the active layer & support layer resulted in a stabilized composite behavior to a considerable extent [87]. The presence of sericin increased
system. Use of electrospun nanofibers as supports are capable of giving the surface hydrophilicity, smoothness and negative charge of the
superior performance compared to asymmetric flat sheet membrane membrane. It showed increased salt rejection and antifouling property
due to their large surface-to-volume ratio. But the use of these mem- but exhibited lower performance in terms of flux.
branes has so far been carried out for nanofiltration, forward osmosis Exposure of PA membrane to chlorine (commonly used as disinfec-
and pressure retarded osmosis [60–64]. tant in water treatment) changes their hydrogen bonding behavior
from intermolecular to intramolecular. Therefore it is necessary to de-
4.1.2.2. Modification of thin PA layer. Modification of thin barrier layer is velop chlorine resistant membranes [88,89]. Replacement of amide
necessary for two separate but closely related reasons. One is to im- linkage with imide linkage eliminated the chlorine resistant site giving
prove the permeability and salt rejection, and second to improve the chlorine resistant membrane [90]. Other similar works which focus on
fouling resistance of the membrane. increasing the chlorine resistance of PA membrane by decreasing
Fouling refers to decline in flux and hence the life-span of a mem- the reactivity of nitrogen atom in amide bond are available in literature
brane due to colloidal fouling, biofouling, and organic fouling [65–67]. [91–93]. An aromatic PA RO membrane having strong antimicrobial and
The interaction between the foulants and membrane surface gives rise high chorine tolerance was prepared by grafting of 3-monomethylol-
to this phenomenon. The extent of the interaction mainly depends 5,5-dimethylhydantoin (MDMH) on to the membrane surface [94].
upon the nature of the barrier layer. The approach to address this The chlorination product, N-halamine possesses strong anti-microbial
issue is to alter the membrane surface, so as to reduce the interaction
between the foulant and the barrier layer. Hydrophilization of the mem-
brane surface is generally opted in this scenario, which can be achieved
by addition of some hydrophilic additives or by grafting of functional
monomers on the membrane surface by some advanced techniques
such as plasma treatment, redox reaction or by radiation [68]. Numbers
of additives are used in the current era which include polyvinyl alcohol,
polyethylene glycol, nano fillers, surface modifying macromolecules,
zwitterions, grafting of hydrophilic polymer brushes, dendrimers, etc.
[69–80]. In-situ generated surface modifying macromolecules
(iLSMM) improved the hydrophilicity, stability, and flux of the mem-
branes prepared thereof [81]. This was attributed to the presence of Fig. 6. Reversible Chlorination reaction of MDMH [94].
 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26 15

Table 1 Table 1 (continued)

Newly reported monomers for synthesis of thin film composite PA membranes.

Amine source Acid chloride source Ref.

[104]

[95]

[105]

[96]

[77]

[97]

property which could kill microorganisms on the membrane surface

and revert back to MDMH (Fig. 6).
The properties of the membrane in terms of selectivity and perme-
[98]
ability are mainly governed by the nature of PA layer and its fabrication
[96–105]. Optimum performance by the PA film can be controlled by
varying the polymerization conditions, or by addition of some additives
or by surface modification (post-treatment). Variation in polymeriza-
tion conditions includes choice of the monomers, their concentration,
choice of the solvent, reaction time and curing conditions [106–108].
[80] Different combination of monomers are used with an aim to achieve su-
perior performing TFC membrane. Some of the relatively new mono-
mers reported for preparation of PA layer in TFC are given in Table 1.
Addition of solvents such as DMSO, propanol and DMF in aqueous
amine solution increased the permeation property of the membrane.
This behavior was ascribed to higher rate of diffusion of amine owing
to increased miscibility of water and organic solvent [109,110]. Interac-
[99]
tion between PA film and hydrofluoric acid (HF) and isopropyl alcohol
(IPA) was discussed by Mukherjee et al. [111]. Reduction in polymer
chains entanglement, due to limited hydrolysis of amide network by
the acid, lead to enhanced flux. The carboxylic acid and amidic groups
generated due to acid hydrolysis increased the desalination property
[100] of the membranes. Use of DMF and DMSO as ‘activating solvents’ helped
in removing the defects in the PA layer by compression effects created
by swelling of PA. This effect increased the salt rejection [112]. Alkaline
catalysts neutralize the hydrochloric acid produced during the interfa-
cial polymerization (IP) reaction. Acid acceptors such as sodium hy-
droxide, sodium carbonate, triethylamine are used for this purpose. It
[101] is argued that the strength of acid acceptor affects the membrane struc-
ture in terms of crosslinking and porosity, thereby affecting permeabil-
ity and selectivity. Recently, Xiang et al. studied the effect of different
ammonium salts on the piperazine PA membrane. The conclusions de-
duced from the experimental study indicated that, ammonium salts
having higher steric configuration resulted in superior salt rejection
[49] and a rougher surface [113]. The choice of organic solvent also plays a
significant role in influencing the solubility and diffusivity of amine
monomer thus affecting the reaction rate and morphology of the PA
film. When the organic phase during IP was changed from commonly
used hexane to toluene, the surface charge of the membrane changed
[102]
from neutral to positive [101,114]. It is a known fact that charged mem-
branes perform better than uncharged one. Incorporation of monomers
which are source of sulfonyl groups enhances water permeability and
salt rejection when added to the aqueous amine solution [95,104,114].
When 2,2′-benzidinedisulfonic acid (BDSA) was added in addition to
[103]
MPD in aqueous solution, flux of the membrane increased from 20
LMH to 45 LMH at 16 bar pressure. Also, there was notable increase in
the salt rejection of the membrane [95].
Novel concept of patterned TFC surface has been introduced by
Maruf et al. recently [115]. The experimental results demonstrated
that patterned membranes faired better than their unpatterned counter
parts w.r.t flux and rejection. Surface patterns induce hydrodynamic
16 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

secondary flow at the membrane surface (Fig. 7). It modifies the flow
profile and local streamlines of the feed solution in the proximity of pat-
terns producing localized turbulence [116].
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a new technology to modify RO
membranes is a very attractive notion. The number of ALD cycles govern
the thickness of the membranes which affect salt rejection and flux of
the membranes [117]. Optimized ALD cycles gave polar and hydrophilic
surface resulting in better antifouling resistant membranes.

4.2. Inorganic/ceramic membranes

Inorganic membranes offer the advantage of being chemically inert

and thermally more stable than polymeric membranes. Zeolites form Fig. 8. A) Zig-zag channel system in MFI [130] B) Intercrystal pore and zeolite pore in MFI
an important class of these membranes. Other materials mainly include [121].
titania, silica, alumina and zirconia. Ceramic membranes can be pre-
pared either by slip-coating sintering technique or by sol–gel method. pores/boundaries restricted the diffusion of water through the pores
Deposition of progressively fine particles at each stage gives anisotropic which explains reduction in flux with increase in permeation time
structure to these membranes in which a meso or micro porous active [127]. Balance of Si/Al ratio help in formation of tailor made defect
layer is formed on the surface of a macro porous support [118]. The free zeolite crystals with altered hydrophilicity which may influence
pore size and framework density determine the separation capacity of the salt rejection and water permeation [124,128]. An increase in tem-
inorganic membranes when used for water purification. Pore size gov- perature enhances the pure water permeation but decreases the salt re-
erns ion selectivity, and the framework determines water permeability jection [129]. This is due to accelerated ion diffusion, alteration in the
[119]. Changing the atoms (in case of zeolite) in the framework will zeolite structure, and change in hydration diameter of ions at higher
change the channel width, and hence influence water permeability. temperature. Hydroxysodalite (HS) zeolite membrane (pore size
Work on zeolite membranes received considerable momentum after 0.4 nm) is another such membrane having potential RO application
simulation work conducted on them indicated 100% sodium ions rejec- [130].
tion by a perfect crystal of all Si or ZK-4 membrane through RO process Lu et al. succeeded in reducing the thickness of the aluminum-doped
[120]. The separation through zeolite membrane occurs via size exclu- ZSM-5 zeolite membrane (1.2 µm-0.7 µm) which enhanced the mem-
sion wherein the size of hydrated sodium ion is larger than that of zeo- brane permeability significantly. The membranes showed sodium rejec-
lite aperture (0.42 nm) [121]. Development of a continuous, defect-free tion from 97 to 99% with efficient regeneration capacity (Fig. 9) [131,
zeolite crystal is difficult to develop [122]. This is overcome by second- 132].
ary growth of a zeolite layer on a zeolite seeded porous α-alumina sup- Other than zeolites, use of clay minerals has also been reported to
port or a stainless steel support in a hydrothermal process [123–125]. prepare RO membranes. Clay can act as osmotic membranes [133].
Commonly used zeolites include MFI-type, Sodalite (SODA) and Linde Use of bentonite and montmorillonite clay capable of showing salt re-
Type A (LTA). Most widely used zeolite membranes are of MFI type, jection is available in literature [134–136]. The negative charge present
consisting of straight channels interconnected by zigzag channels on the surface of these materials, repels anions. Since cations need to be
(Fig. 8A). One of the earliest works on zeolite membranes for reverse os- associated with their anionic counterpart in order to maintain electrical
mosis was reported by Kumakiri et al. [126] for separation of water/mix- neutrality, only water passes through the pore space generated by over-
tures. The membranes prepared were reported to be 5 μm thick having lapping of clay platelets [133]. Clay membranes deposited on a porous
pore size of ~0.4 nm which showed 44% rejection of ethanol. However support show significantly higher water permeation than compact
use of them as RO membranes for desalination was reported in 2004 thick dense membranes due to reduction in thickness of the membrane
by Li et al. [121]. At steady state, the sodium ions rejected by these [137,138].
membranes was 76.4%. Decrease in rejection with increase in ionic In spite of the advantages offered by inorganic membranes over
strength was attributed to the presence of two types of pores within ze- polymeric membranes, certain aspects of these membranes such as
olite membranes. One is diameter zeolite channel and second is micro- cost have hindered its commercialization for desalination. Moreover,
porous intercrystal pore which also has nano dimensions (Fig. 8B). the thickness is higher than the polymeric membranes which affects
Permeation of ions through the intercrystal pores at higher concentra- the membrane performance. Development of this class of RO mem-
tion must have resulted in decreased rejection. The ion double layer branes can further be done by exploring other materials/minerals or
formed by adsorption of hydrated ions at the surface of intercrystal by reducing the membrane thickness even further.

Fig. 7. Unpatterned and patterned TFC PA surface [115].

 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26 17

Fig. 9. Surface and cross section of zeolite membrane [132].

4.3. Mixed matrix membranes (MMM) particles increased the surface properties. The morphology of the sur-
face of TFN also changed due to defects in zeolite structure and reduced
Mixed matrix membranes, also known as composite membranes extent of crosslinking [150]. Significant improvement in pure water flux
boost the properties of host polymer matrix by taking advantage of without loss in rejection has been attributed to preferential flow chan-
the properties offered by inorganic fillers added to them. The common nels provided by zeolite pores for water (2.7 Å) [151]. These pores are
trade-off relation between permeability and selectivity can be duly ad- large enough to allow passage of water molecules but are too small for
dressed by such organic-inorganic hybrid systems. The synergistic rela- solute transport (8–9 Å). Fig. 10 represents the Schematic illustration
tion between the host and guest help in improving permeability, of immobilization of Ag-np onto the surface of polyamide TFC
selectivity, thermal and chemical stability in addition to fouling resis- membrane.
tance of the composites. A host of inorganic fillers have been explored Use of hydrophilized ordered meso carbon (H-OMC) was
for this purpose that include zeolites, carbon nano tubes, silica, silver, explored in another such work to prepare well dispersed TFN,
alumina, TiO2 nanoparticles, etc. [139–143]. Thin film nanocomposites devoid of aggregates [153]. This membrane was capable of showing
(TFN) can be prepared by one of the following ways; a) nanoparticles improved membrane performance with respect to water permeability
may be dispersed in aqueous solution of MPD during interfacial poly- and BSA adsorption. This highlighted the influence of ordered structure
merization, b) dispersion in organic solution of TMC during crosslinking in generating active pores for water permeation through the PA
or c) deposition on the surface after formation of PA film by dipping the layer. Non-porous inorganic fillers include silica [140,154]. Control-
TFC membrane in the colloidal solution of nanoparticles. ling, tuning and functionalization of these nano particles help in
Most of the studies performed on TFN have shown that they exhibit synthesizing tailored TFN membranes. Wu et al. functionalized mesopo-
superior performance in comparison to TFC [140,144–147]. Studies rous silica nanoparticles (mMSN) with amine groups using 3-
have been conducted to investigate the effect of nanoparticle size on aminopropyltriethoxysilane [155]. The flux of modified membranes in-
TFN properties. Smaller size particles altered the membrane perfor- creased by an order of 1.5 to that of TFC membrane. The increased inter-
mance to a greater extent. Increase in flux upon addition of inorganic action between the functional groups and polymer matrix improved the
filler modified the polymer structure which affected the transport of water transport. Addition of mMSN also enhanced the antifouling ability
water molecules through the membrane [140]. Addition of nano zeo- and long term stability of the membrane. At very low nanosilica loading
lites and silicates has proved to increase the contact angle, surface up to 0.1% w/v, hydrophilicity increased significantly with decrease in
roughness, interfacial surface energy and water permeability [145, contact angle from 81° to 47°. High permeability and salt rejection
148]. Lind et al. investigated the influence of zeolite crystal size on the above 96% was observed for such system [156]. The bactericidal proper-
properties of TFN membrane [149]. As per their results, the addition of ty of silver and titania have been well utilized in the synthesis of mem-
nano zeolites formed more permeable, negatively charged thicker branes to improve the fouling resistance, in addition to thermal and
membranes. Smaller particles enhanced permeability, but larger chemical stability [152,157–162]. TiO2 can release strong oxidative

Fig. 10. Schematic illustration of immobilization of Ag-np onto the surface of polyamide TFC membrane [152].
18 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

based proteoliposomes. The substrate was subsequently crosslinked

with TMC to give a crosslinked polyamide layer having proteoliposomes
[169] (Fig. 12). The ABM membrane resulted in 40% higher permeability
compared to commercial brackish water RO membrane and one order
higher than seawater RO membrane. Li et al. decorated proteoliposomes
with polydopamine (PDA) to increase its affinity towards Poly(amide-
imide) (PAI) support (Fig. 13) [168]. The immobilized proteoliposomes
were subsequently encapsulated in a layer formed by crosslinking of
poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) and (PAI). At just 0.1 MPa pressure, these
membranes showed 95% MgCl2 rejection and 50% higher flux.
Nano structures that mimic the fast transport of fluids in biological
cellular channels have gained wide popularity for last few years.
Majumder et al. demonstrated how aligned carbon nano tube system
can increase water transport through a membrane by 4–5 orders of
magnitude than those from conventional fluid-flow theory [174]. The
increase in flux is due to atomic-scale smoothness of vertically aligned
CNT (VACNT) walls that enables frictionless transport of water [175].
Other theories have also been put forth to explain this phenomena
[176–178]. Ion transport through CNT channels indicated, ion exclusion
Fig. 11. Schematic representation of passage of water molecules through aquaporin [144]. by CNT was dominated by electrostatic interaction with the charged
functional groups at its tip and not by steric interaction (Fig. 14) [46].
Therefore some charge should be planted onto the mouth of VACNT so
species (radicals) under UV irradiation which inhibits formation of bio- that rejection is governed by Donnan exclusion. In order to explain the
film on membrane surface, thereby increasing the life of membrane rejection through sieving mechanism, the mouth of CNT should be al-
[163]. In a very recent work, commercial RO membrane was modified tered [179–182]. Currently the technology involved in synthesizing
with silver nanoparticles coated with polyethyleneimine (Ag-PEI) and VACNT comprise of continuous high-yield chemical vapor deposition,
polyacrylic acid via polyelectrolyte layer by layer self-assembly [86]. and alignment by application of magnetic field post synthesis [183].
Surface modification resulted in significant reduction of irreversible If such highly efficient VACNT membranes become a reality, RO
bacterial cell (Escherichia coli bacteria). Irreversible binding of silver membranes capable of showing b99% salt rejection, and flux of 4–6
nanoparticles to the membrane surface was achieved by the reaction orders of magnitude higher than conventional TFC membranes will rev-
of silver salt with a reducing agent at the membrane surface [164]. Ex- olutionize desalination industry. Research on CNT and VACNT mem-
cept for slight reduction in water permeability (up to 17%), rest of the branes is in progress [78,185–189].
membrane properties remained unchanged. Addition of the nanoparti- Unlike CNT whose inner wall is hydrophobic, alluminosilicate nano-
cles imparted a very strong antibacterial property to the membrane. Use tube has hydrophilic interior, with an interior diameter of 1 nm, and ex-
of silver nanoparticles for commercialization is still a matter of research ternal diameter of ca. 2.3–2.7 nm (Fig. 15) [190]. Lyotropic liquid
due to severe leaching problem. Use of nanoparticles should be carefully crystals having effective pore size of 0.75–1 nm are capable of showing
considered due to their potential toxicity. enhanced water transport through them by selectively obstructing hy-
drated salt ions [191,192]. Tuning and optimization of these materials
4.4. Biomimetic membranes will open new dimensions in the field of RO technology. The principle,
working and applications of biomimetic and bioinspired membranes,
RO membrane systems can be compared to active biological chan- particularly aquaporins and VACNT has been summarized well in fol-
nels that transfer 107 ions per pore per second that correspond to ener- lowing references [119,193].
gy requirement of 2.55–6.4 kWh/m3 of water produced from sea water The use of such biomimetic systems having the potential of increas-
having salinity equal to 3.5 wt.% [165]. ing water permeability manifold will reduce the energy demands of re-
Aquaporins are water channel proteins bound to phospholipid cellu- verse osmosis desalination [175]. Incorporation of mere 0.03% VACNT
lar membranes, through which water can flow rapidly inside the cell and 0.005 mol% of aquaporinZ into membranes, may result in flux ex-
than by diffusing through the phospholipid bilayer (Fig. 11). The solutes ceeding current commercial RO membranes [183]. Certain aspects of
during the transport are retained by the proteins. In 2003, Nobel Prize in these futuristic materials, such as mechanical strength and availability
chemistry was awarded to Peter Agre for discovery of aquaporins. in large quantities in case of aquaporins, and membrane area, packing
Kumar et al. pioneered the work on aquaporins in synthetic membranes density, long fabrication process in case of VACNT needs to be addressed
by studying the permeability and transport properties of amphiphilic immediately [194].
triblock-polymer vesicles containing Aquaporin Z from E. coli bacterial
cells [166]. Biomimetic membranes containing aquaporin proteins pro- 5. Reverse osmosis modules
duced by multiple different procedures was investigated by Holme in
his patent titled ‘Biomimetic Water Membrane Comprising Aquaporins The major criteria needed to be considered during membrane mod-
Used in the Production of Salinity Power’ [167]. Aquaporins are general- ule selection are cost, concentration polarization, operational parame-
ly embedded into an ultrathin amphiphilic lipid film or proteoliposomes ters (particularly pressure) and resistance to fouling. Number of
(protein-containing vesicles) so as to mimic their natural environment module designs is centered on two basic type of membrane configura-
[168]. Different techniques have been suggested for the development tion: flat and tubular [195]. Plate-and-frame and spiral wound module
of aquaporin-based biomimetic membrane (ABM) in literature includ- comprise flat membranes. Depending on the difference in their diame-
ing membrane supported lipid bilayer via vesicle fusion, vesicles ter, tubular membrane configurations are classified into tubular, capil-
suspended over membrane pores, polymer tethered bio-layers, and po- lary and hollow fiber module. For reverse osmosis, two modules
lymerized proteoliposomes [169]. Few membranes embedded with namely hollow fiber module and spiral wound module are widely
aquaporins are available in literature [170–172]. used which has been discussed briefly below. A number of modified
Zhao et al. reported preparation of TFC RO membrane by soaking PSf modules conceptualized around these basic models have been patented
substrate with m-phenylenediamine (MPD) containing aquaporin- [196–199].
 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26 19

Fig. 12. Preparation of aquaporin based-biomimetic membrane by interfacial polymerization [173].

5.1. Hollow fiber module offers high packing density, uniform permeate flow with small pressure
drop. The permeate water produced by hollow fiber module is nearly
The hollow fiber module was first developed by Mahon at Dow ten times more than that of spiral wound modules, due to high mem-
Chemical in the year 1966 [200]. It has been manufactured and brane surface area. In order to withstand high operational pressures, fi-
marketed by other companies too since then. Hollow fiber module is bers usually have small diameters with thick walls. The water flowing
usually used for cellulosic derived membranes. The development of through the fiber is directly proportional to the diameter to fourth
commercial cellulose acetate hollow fiber membrane module is avail- order, while membrane area changes by power of two. This implies
able in literature [201]. In this module, thousands of hollow fibers are the importance of manufacturing hollow fibers having identical diame-
bundled together into an element making the pressure vessels. Each ters [202]. Unfortunately, the difficulty in applying the technology of
pressure vessel consists of number of such elements. This configuration hollow fiber membrane to the widely used polyamide membranes on

Fig. 13. Schematic representation of embedding of PDA coated proteoliposomes in PEI-PAI crosslinked membrane [168].
20 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

Fig. 14. Schematic illustration of transport of water molecule through VACNT [184]. Fig. 16. Spiral wound RO membrane module.

a commercial scale has restricted their use to only cellulosic mem- Studies indicate reduction up to nearly 20% of the total desalination
branes. However, there are some reports suggesting the synthesis of cost by use of large modules (16 in.. and 18 in..) compared to the con-
TFC PA hollow fiber membranes on a laboratory scale in recent past ventional 8 inch element (Table 2) [209]. The MegaMagnum RO ele-
[203,204]. ment developed by Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. (KMS) boasts RO
element having an 18 inch diameter. Most of the leading RO system
5.2. Spiral wound module manufacturers provide 16 inch elements.
Polyamide TFC membranes are used for spiral wound module. In
Spiral wound module is an advanced form of plate and frame model spite of hollow fiber module having advantage over spiral wound with
in which two membranes with their active side are placed facing each respect to higher packing density and thus the production, most of the
other separated by a feed channel spacer and centrally connected to hollow fiber modules have been replaced by spiral wound modules.
perforated permeate collection coil (Fig. 16). The technology for indus- This is due to their inherent fouling resistance and their fewer require-
trial application was developed in the year 1968 by Gulf General Atomic ments for feed pretreatment. Seawater, industrial and brackish RO
under the sponsorship of OSW [205]. Over the years since its invention, water treatment is usually carried out with the help of this module
slight modifications done in this element have been patented which shows total pure water recovery up to 70–90% [46,210,211].
[206–208]. As mentioned previously, the membranes are separated by
feed channel spacer who act as turbulence promoter and allows uni- 6. Problems associated with RO process
form passage of feed water through the membrane. The membrane
and the feed spacer (‘leaves’) are then glued along the three open 6.1. Scaling
edges forming membrane envelope coiled around the perforated tube.
Feed passes axially down the module across the membrane envelope The concentration of different marginally soluble salts i.e., divalent
[118]. and multivalent, increases during filtration of seawater through mem-
Clean water passes through the membrane surface into the perme- brane. When the solubility limit of these salts reaches supersaturation
ate channel in a spiral direction to the center of the element and exits level, they tend to precipitate and form a scale on the membrane surface
via collection tube. A single pressure vessel may contain different num- which affects the productivity of the RO process [212]. The use of
bers of spiral wound elements depending upon the requirement. In re- antiscalants is the widely adopted technique to prevent scaling by
cent years, development of seawater RO elements has been focused on salts such as silica, iron, barium sulfate, calcium carbonate, gypsum,
maximizing the membrane area to increase the desalination capacity. etc. The presence of these salts in different concentration depend on
the source of the feed water. The anti-scaling agents increase the thresh-
old for the onset of scale formation on the membrane surface [213].
Commonly used anti-scalants, such as organic polymers, surface active
reagents, organic phosphonates and phosphates, interfere with the ki-
netics of crystal nucleation, formation and growth [214]. Scaling formed
as a result of presence of silica increases the complexity of the desalina-
tion process since silica deposits are difficult and costly to remove. The
controlled removal of silica by use of anti-scalants is an issue that has
bee not resolved completely due to the varying parameters influencing
silica precipitation [215]. Carbonate scaling can be prevented by
adjusting the pH of feed water between 4 and 6. Rahardianto et al. sug-
gested increasing levels of bicarbonate to reduce gypsum scaling in in-
land brackish water feed [216]. The bicarbonate adsorption onto the
crystal surface, led to inhibition of gypsum scaling on membrane
surface. Surface nano-structuring of a PA RO membrane with
poly(methacrylic acid), with an aim to reduce the scaling propensity in-
duced by gypsum was investigated by Kim et al. [217]. Pre-treatment of
the feed by pH adjustment, ion exchange, NF/UF may additionally help
in reducing scaling [218]. Flow reversal mechanism to prevent scaling
Fig. 15. Schematic presentation of aluminosilicate single-walled nanotube [190]. has also been proposed by Pomerantz et al. [219]. Reversal of the flow
 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26 21

Table 2
Projection of the number of RO elements and pressure vessels required for plants of different capacities using 16 inch. and 8 inch RO system [207].

Plant size 16-inch ESPA2 membrane element 8-inch LFC membrane element Savings in no. of Savings in no. of
(m3/d) elements pressure vessels
Membrane area No. of No. of pressure Membrane area No. of No. of pressure
required (m2) elements vessel required (m2) elements vessel

2000 1995.25 24 6 5144.99 147 21 123 15

5000 4988.13 48 12 12,862.47 357 51 309 39
10,000 9976.25 96 24 25,724.93 693 99 597 75
100,000 99,762.54 852 213 257,249.3 6930 990 6078 777

before the induction time is reached replaces the supersaturated brine 6.3. Brine disposal
with the unsaturated feed and ‘zeroes the elapsed nucleation time’
thus resetting the induction clock. The reject from the desalination plant having very high salinity than
the seawater is referred as brine or brine-blowdown. In addition to high
levels of Total dissolved salts (TDS), brine may comprise of other compo-
6.2. Boron removal nents such as halogenated organic compounds, anti-scalants, anti-
foulants, corrosive materials, acid, etc. [224]. In-use brine disposal
Boron removal by RO membranes is one of the hottest topics that methods include direct discharge into sea, discharge to the surface, evap-
continue to remain as a challenge today. As per WHO guidelines and oration ponds and well injection. Disposal of such highly concentrated sa-
regulations, the permissible amount of boron in drinking water line solution on land or sea pose a serious environmental threat. Direct
shouldn't exceed 0.5 mg/L. The effectiveness of RO process for boron re- discharge in sea affects the micro-algal population, plant life and results
moval has not been enough, mainly because of the nature of the ele- in sludge formation. Disposal of brine via evaporation ponds is generally
ment in water. In seawater, at natural pH, boron exists as uncharged adopted for inland RO desalination plants i.e., in arid and semi-arid re-
boric acid which can comfortably diffuse through the membrane just gions where oceanic discharge is not possible and there is abundance of
like water (rejection b 80%) [220]. At higher pH, negatively charged bo- solar energy [225]. However, evaporation ponds consume too much of
rate ion is formed which shows a rejection up to 99% [221]. Thus, the space and surface discharge may affect the soil and plant productivity.
ionic strength and pH of the solution plays a very important role in Dispersing the brine with seawater or water used up during other
governing the rejection of boron during desalination. For efficient re- processes at the RO plant, help in reducing the environmental impact
moval of boron, RO plant consists of two or more passes. In the first by dilution. The modeling of the discharge in terms of discharge depth
pass, seawater is passed through high pressure RO membrane without and discharge velocity also affects its dispersion in seawater [226]. A
any pH adjustment. During this stage most of the total dissolved solids case study was presented by Ahmed et al., describing SAL-PROC tech-
are removed. At second stage, low-pressure brackish water RO mem- nology which is an integrated process for sequential extraction of dis-
brane is used with elevated pH adjustment [222]. Another technique solved elements from inorganic saline water by multiple evaporation
used for removal of boron is, first pass high pressure RO membrane and/or cooling technique supplemented by mineral and chemical pro-
followed by boron selective ion exchange resin (BSR). The BSR tech- cessing [227]. Fig. 17 shows the flow diagram of brine conversion two
nique is highly efficient in removing boron, but concerns regarding stage RO seawater desalination system [228].
the storage of chemicals for regeneration of BSR, their disposal and The components recovered by such process included gypsum, sodium
high costs are the serious problems still to be resolved. Combining RO chloride, calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, calcium chloride, and
technology with other processes for better removal of boron has also sodium sulfate which were of high quality and used by various industries.
been proposed [223]. Removal of scaling agents of feed water result in less brine and higher

Fig. 17. Flow diagram of brine conversion two stage RO seawater desalination system [228].
22 S.S. Shenvi et al. / Desalination 368 (2015) 10–26

recovery rate [24]. A two-stage brine conversion seawater RO desalina- performance and cost reduction. Coupling of renewable energy to desa-
tion system (BCS) is capable of recovery potable water with TDS less lination projects may lead to green desalination.
than 200 ppm (Fig. 17) [228]. The system reduced the production cost
by 15–20%. In yet another study, brine from an RO plant was used as Acknowledgments
feed for electrodialysis cell which resulted in reduced concentration of
salts in the feed and was finally mixed with the RO permeate [229]. AMI thank Prof. Swapan Bhattacharya, Director, National Institute of
Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India for providing the research facil-
ities and encouragement.
7. Conclusion and future opportunities
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