ABSTRACT
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There is a growing awareness by scientists, political leaders, and the general public, that the best way to approach the world’s limited water resources problem lies in a coordinated approach involving water management, water purification, and water conservation [1-5]. Thermal and membrane systems are the two most successful commercial water purification techniques. Desalination using reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, in particular, has become very popular for producing freshwater from brackish water and seawater. The technique has low capital and operating costs compared to other alternative processes like multistage flash [6]. Ultrafiltration (UF) may be used before reverse osmosis for feed water pretreatment [7]. Membrane separation processes are also widely used in biochemical processing, in industrial wastewater treatment, in food and beverage production, and in pharmaceutical applications [8].
