Water Filtration and Organo-Silica Membrane Application for Peat Water Treatment and Wetland Saline Water Desalination

Abstract

Peat water and wetland saline water is a crucial problems faced by wetland communities. In some places, the water becomes saline due to the intrusion of seawater into rivers. Many technologies, for example, water filtration, coagulation-pervaporation process, membrane ultrafiltration, adsorbent, ozone, or constructed wetlands have been applied and demonstrated in order to treat the issue. In this chapter, the application of water filtration set-up and the organo-silica membranes for wetland saline water desalination have been well discussed. It is reported that the addition of organic material into silica matrix as inorganic material shows a robust membranes’ performance. This effectively increase the hydrostability of organo-silica membranes. From the reported studies, it is also considered to perform a pre-treatment process before employing organo-silica membranes directly into wetland water. This is important to sharply reduce the natural organic matters (NOMs) in this water, eliminate the foulant, and also protect the membranes matrix from physical damage. The NOMs create cakes on top of membrane layers and produce fouling. In conclusion, a pre-treatment coagulation process is required before the organo-silica membranes are applied for wetland saline water desalination.