Brine management systems using membrane concentrators: Future directions for membrane development in desalination

Brine management systems are imperative for sustainable water supply and for securing valuable resources from desalination plants. The utilization of membrane brine concentrators has recently been focused on because of their high energy and cost efficiencies compared with those of thermal brine concentrators. In this paper, we investigated the recent candidates of membrane concentrators in terms of their future potential in brine man-agement systems and categorized the types of utilized membranes into two groups: single solution passing (SSP)-type membranes and double solution passing (DSP)-type membranes. The current membrane technologies for manufacturing these types of membranes were critically analyzed, and future directions for membrane devel-opment towards efficient brine management systems were suggested. SSP-type membranes and their accompa-nying systems should be durable at pressures higher than 230 bar to utilize membrane brine concentrators. On the other hand, DSP-type membranes should exhibit high-pressure durability (higher than 40 bar) and low structure parameters (less than 50 mu m). This study examines the current status of membrane systems and presents the technical specifications of membranes required for membrane brine management systems.