| 초록 |
The world's water consumption rate is doubling every 20 years, outpacing by two times the rate of population growth. Since the supply of fresh water is on the decrease, there is a critical worldwide need to better manage this increasingly valuable resource. In this context, desalination using seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membrane technology has become a viable option for the development of new regional water supplies. Nevertheless, SWRO desalination requires substantial amount of energy to produce fresh water from seawater. Relatively low recovery of permeate in SWRO process is also another issue to be addressed due to the potential impact of brine (concentrate) on marine environment.Accordingly, this paper focuses on the critical review on next-generation technologies for seawater desalination, including forward osmosis, membrane distillation, carbon-nanotube membranes, and hybrid systems. The role of industrial chemistry to overcome the challenges of desalination will be also discussed. |
