ABSTRACT
Membrane technology has undoubtedly affirmed its suitability and effectiveness for removing a wide range of impurities at lower specific energy consumption compared with traditional wastewater treatment processes. This chapter highlights the basic theory of membrane process and the types and mechanisms of transport phenomenon, and provides a critical analysis of the reverse osmosis (RO) process. Membrane separation technology and especially the RO process have been progressively used in seawater desalination and several industrial practices. Four categories of pressure-driven membrane filtration processes are used in both seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. They include microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and RO. RO is a pressure-driven membrane process, which uses a synthesised semi-permeable membrane made from cellulose acetate and polyamide to separate two mediums of different solute concentration. The spiral wound membrane module is made of several layers of glued flat-rolled membrane sheets wrapped around a central perforated tube to collect high-quality water.
