Present Situation and Future Prospects of Water TreatmentTechnology with Membrane

Abstract

Membrane technology has occupied important positions in water treatment field and receiving much attention.Reverse osmosis (RO)membranes have been getting more application in the fields of sea water desalination andreclaimed wastewater production associated with their advantages including superior water quality, easier control ofoperation and lower cost. Microfiltration (MF)and ultrafiltration (UF)membranes have been widely applied fordrinking water production and waste water treatment such as membrane bioreactor (MBR). Based on this background, series of symposiums on “Prospects of Water Treatment with Membrane”have beenheld for five years every time in our annual meeting of the Membrane Society of Japan. This year corresponded tothe last year for this symposium. In this paper, topics in the symposiums for five years were surveyed. One of the serious problems arising during water treatment with membrane is still membrane fouling. Foulingphenomena can be classified into two types, organic fouling and biofouling. The researches focused on the biofoul-ing reduction for RO membrane will be introduced in this paper in addition to the future prospects of membrane foul-ing researches.Another topic of water treatment is application of “Forward Osmosis (FO)”membrane.Development of innovativeFO membranes and draw solutions (high osmotic pressure solution)is a key for the success of the commercializa-tion of this system. Brief review for FO membranes and draw solutions will be mentioned in this paper.