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Journal ArticleDOI

The Future of Seawater Desalination: Energy, Technology, and the Environment

Menachem Elimelech, +1 more
- 05 Aug 2011 - 
- Vol. 333, Iss: 6043, pp 712-717
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TLDR
The possible reductions in energy demand by state-of-the-art seawater Desalination technologies, the potential role of advanced materials and innovative technologies in improving performance, and the sustainability of desalination as a technological solution to global water shortages are reviewed.
Abstract
In recent years, numerous large-scale seawater desalination plants have been built in water-stressed countries to augment available water resources, and construction of new desalination plants is expected to increase in the near future. Despite major advancements in desalination technologies, seawater desalination is still more energy intensive compared to conventional technologies for the treatment of fresh water. There are also concerns about the potential environmental impacts of large-scale seawater desalination plants. Here, we review the possible reductions in energy demand by state-of-the-art seawater desalination technologies, the potential role of advanced materials and innovative technologies in improving performance, and the sustainability of desalination as a technological solution to global water shortages.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Theoretical evaluation of electrochemical cell architectures using cation intercalation electrodes for desalination

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used two-dimensional porous-electrode theory with concentrated solution transport to evaluate the performance of various cell architectures where flow occurs through open flow channels (OFCs) when two IHC electrodes comprised of nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) are used to store Na+ ions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Understanding the pH-responsive behavior of graphene oxide membrane in removing ions and organic micropollulants

TL;DR: In this article, a multi-layered graphene oxide (GO) membrane was used to remove ionic and organic species from water at different pH levels, and it was found that at pH 7, the GO membrane exhibited high removal of multivalent cations/anions and all tested organics, regardless of their charges, sizes, or hydrophobic properties, but low removal of monovalent ions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Photo Induced Membrane Separation for Water Purification and Desalination Using Azobenzene Modified Anodized Alumina Membranes

TL;DR: The photo induced permeation of water was promoted by the vaporization of water with the repetitive photo isomerization of azobenzene, and achieved the purification of water solutions, because dye molecules and a protein dissolved in aqueous solutions were not involved in the photo induced penetrated water.
Journal ArticleDOI

High-flux and fouling-resistant reverse osmosis membrane prepared with incorporating zwitterionic amine monomers via interfacial polymerization

TL;DR: In this paper, N-aminoethyl piperazine propane sulfonate (AEPPS) was added into m-phenylenediamine (MPD) aqueous solution to react with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) via interfacial polymerization to fabricate zwitterionic thin film composite reverse osmosis membrane (TFCMZs).
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Constant flux crossflow filtration evaluation of surface-modified fouling-resistant membranes

TL;DR: A potential strategy to achieve fouling resistance in a membrane of a desired flux and rejection is to modify the surface of a more permeable (and perhaps lower rejection) membrane, thereby making the resulting modified membrane fouling-resistant but leaving it with the desired fluxand rejection characteristics.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades

TL;DR: Some of the science and technology being developed to improve the disinfection and decontamination of water, as well as efforts to increase water supplies through the safe re-use of wastewater and efficient desalination of sea and brackish water are highlighted.
Journal ArticleDOI

Fast Mass Transport Through Sub-2-Nanometer Carbon Nanotubes

TL;DR: Gas and water flow measurements through microfabricated membranes in which aligned carbon nanotubes with diameters of less than 2 nanometers serve as pores enable fundamental studies of mass transport in confined environments, as well as more energy-efficient nanoscale filtration.
Journal ArticleDOI

Ultralow-Fouling, Functionalizable, and Hydrolyzable Zwitterionic Materials and Their Derivatives for Biological Applications

TL;DR: Mixed-charge materials have been shown to be equivalent to zwitterionic materials in resisting nonspecific protein adsorption when they are uniformly mixed at the molecular scale.
Journal ArticleDOI

State-of-the-art of reverse osmosis desalination

TL;DR: The most commonly used desalination technologies are reverse osmosis (RO) and thermal processes such as multi-stage flash (MSF) and multi-effect distillation (MED) as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Survey of Structure−Property Relationships of Surfaces that Resist the Adsorption of Protein

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) to determine the characteristics of functional groups that give surfaces the ability to resist the nonspecific adsorption of proteins from solution.
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