Application of multi-barrier membrane filtration technologies to reclaim municipal wastewater for industrial use

Abstract

The significant percentage of the world water consumption devoted to industrial use, along with an increasingly higher environmental concern of society, has awaken the interest of industry on using municipal reclaimed water for replacing fresh water use coming from utilities or natural resources. Depending on the type of industry and the specific application, water must meet certain quality requirements. Therefore, those water quality standards that are required for those most relevant industrial applications wherein the use of reclaimed water has noticeably been reported are herewith reviewed. Although the use of internal water treatments for recycling and reusing their own effluents has recently and widely been reported within many industrial sectors worldwide, the substitution of fresh water by reclaimed municipal wastewater has yet to be extended much. The increasing proportion of municipal wastewater reclamation plants that rely on membrane filtration technologies versus the total number of reclamation facilities that are distributed worldwide is also assessed within this review, including the discussion of their main related drawbacks.