Membrane-based removal of fluoride from groundwater

One of the biggest issues facing the globe today is fluoride poisoning of water, which is a severe risk to the wellbeing of people since water is essential for consumption from both natural and man-made sources. Fluoride in water can be removed using a variety of methods, although the issue is still not completely solved. Because of its ionic size and reactivity, fluoride can be hard to remove from water -based solutions using traditional electrochemical, precipitation, and adsorption methods. One of the latest innovations that has been shown to be highly successful in bringing fluoride levels down to the required levels is the use of membranes. This review discusses fluoride and its characteristics, sources, impacts on the environment and humans, fluoride measurement techniques, and fluoride applications. The efficacy of different types of membrane separation processes are covered with respect to techniques developed, advantages and drawbacks of defluoridation processes. This review critically examines membrane -based techniques for different defluoridation processes including nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO), membrane distillation (MD), electrodialysis (ED), and forward osmosis (FO). Furthermore, the study addresses developments in ceramic membranes, electrodeionization and membrane capacitive deionization, hybrid membrane techniques, and life cycle assessment (LCA) for membrane -based defluoridation process. The work meets the SDGs goal #6 of clean water supply.