Scale-up Strategies for Membrane-Based Desalination Processes: A Review

Membrane-based technologies have increasingly been chosen in desalination processes, which is evidenced by the increase of large-scale plants constructed in recent years. Indeed, several appropriate strategies should be considered to minimize problems faced during the construction, such as membrane system designs, area requirement, energy requirement, operation and maintenance, and environmental impact, which are related to the economic view and process efficiency. Keep the operating parameters constant during the scale-up of the membrane system should also be an important concern to maintain the performance of the membrane system. In this paper, scale-up strategies for the membrane-based desalination process are reviewed, including desalination technology, economic evaluation, industrial challenges, and scale-up effort. In addition, the opportunity of the integrated membrane system is also emphasized.