Author(s)

Graziela Salvan Cerveira^1,2, Jorge Lima de Magalhães^3,4, Adelaide Maria de S. Antunes^1,2

¹Program of Engineering of Chemical and Biochemical Processes, School of Chemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
²Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³Professional Postgraduation Program in Management, Research and Development in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Centre for Technological Innovation/NIT-FAR, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/FIOCRUZ, Ministry of Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁴Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), University NOVA of Lisbon (UNL), Rua da Junqueira, Lisbon, Portugal.

Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising technology that enables the treatment of high-salinity wastewater. To monitor the state and trends of MD technology for wastewater treatment, the patent filings from the last nine years were analyzed. A total of 72 documents with a special focus either on the membrane itself or on the equipment and process were found. China, United States and Japan play a leading role in the development of these technologies. Most of the inventions concentrating on the membrane apply polymers as the material. Inventions describing the equipment and process are mainly related to system and module design, but also cover the combination of MD with other technologies, the treatment customization to a specific type of wastewater, fouling control and cleaning, and energy recovery. Finally, enhancements in water flux and energy efficiency are found to be key factors to broaden the application of MD technology in wastewater treatment.

Membrane Distillation, Patents, Trends, Wastewater

Cerveira, G. , de Magalhães, J. and de S. Antunes, A. (2021) Trends in Membrane Distillation for Wastewater Treatment. Journal of Environmental Protection, 12, 106-124. doi: 10.4236/jep.2021.122008.