Criscuoli Alessandra
Institute on Membrane Technology (CNR-ITM), Via P. Bucci 17/C, 87036 Rende, Italy.
Membranes (Basel). 2025 Mar 26;15(4):98. doi: 10.3390/membranes15040098.
Sustainable development is linked to the achievement of several different objectives, as outlined by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations. Among them are the production of clean water and the combat of climate change, which is strictly linked to the use of fossil fuels as a primary energy source and their related CO emissions. Water and energy are strongly interconnected. For instance, when processing water, energy is needed to pump, treat, heat/cool, and deliver water. Membrane operations for water treatment/desalination contribute to the recovery of purified/fresh water and reducing the environmental impact of waste streams. However, to be sustainable, water recovery must not be energy intensive. In this respect, this contribution aims to illustrate the state of the art and perspectives in desalination by reverse osmosis (RO), discussing the various approaches looking to improve the energy efficiency of this process. In particular, the coupling of RO with other membrane operations, like pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), reverse electrodialysis (RED), and forward osmosis (FO), as well as the osmotic-assisted reverse osmosis (OARO) system, are reported. Moreover, the possibility of coupling a membrane distillation (MD) unit to an RO one to increase the overall freshwater recovery factor and reduce the brine volumes that are disposed is also discussed. Specific emphasis is placed on the strategies being applied to reduce the MD thermal energy demand, so as to couple the production of the blue gold with the fight against climate change.
可持续发展与若干不同目标的实现相关联，正如联合国定义的17个可持续发展目标（SDGs）所概述的那样。其中包括清洁水的生产以及应对气候变化，而气候变化与将化石燃料用作主要能源及其相关的碳排放密切相关。水和能源紧密相连。例如，在处理水时，需要能源来抽水、处理、加热/冷却以及输送水。用于水处理/海水淡化的膜操作有助于回收净化水/淡水，并减少废水流对环境的影响。然而，为了实现可持续发展，水的回收不能消耗大量能源。在这方面，本论文旨在阐述反渗透（RO）海水淡化的现状和前景，讨论旨在提高该过程能源效率的各种方法。特别报道了RO与其他膜操作的耦合，如压力延迟渗透（PRO）、反向电渗析（RED）和正向渗透（FO），以及渗透辅助反渗透（OARO）系统。此外，还讨论了将膜蒸馏（MD）单元与RO单元耦合以提高整体淡水回收率并减少排放盐水体积的可能性。特别强调了为降低MD热能需求而应用的策略，以便在生产“蓝色黄金”的同时应对气候变化。
