Abstract
Desalination of seawater is the technology predominantly used to alleviate the problem of water scarcity in coastal regions. The sustainability of all desalination processes depends mainly on the reduction of energy costs, the increase of water recovery and the enhancement in recovery and reuse of the generated waste. Integrated/hybrid membrane processes have attracted much interest in the desalination field. Membrane distillation (MD) is a membrane process that can be used in combination with other processes. The objective of this chapter is to review the capability of MD in treating highly concentrated aqueous solutions derived from other desalination processes. This potential application is attracting an increasing interest due to the problem of brine discharges to the environment. Various benefits can be obtained with the utilisation of MD in integrated/hybrid membrane processes, e.g. enhanced quality of the water produced, brine concentration up to zero discharge and energy savings.
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