The recent advances in adsorption and membrane separation and their hybrid technologies for micropollutants removal from wastewater

In modern society, the bulk production of new chemicals, huge consumption, and the discharge of micropollutants into the environment are unavoidable events. Practically, wastewater treatment plants are the main dissemination channel of micropollutants due to their inefficient performances but they are intended to upgrade to 80% removal. Typically, adsorption and membrane separations are effective in removing micropollutants but significantly varied in efficiency from 0–100%. Hence, the scientific community is searching for alternative water treatment technologies. Consequently, adsorption-membrane hybrid technologies have been emerging as promising solutions to mitigate the limitations of individual technology. This hybrid system improved many properties such as hydrophilicity, antifouling property, permeability, regeneration slurry separation, and overall performance due to the synergetic effect. Moreover, the hybrid system was further improved through the use of magnetic carbon nanocomposites (MCN) and modified membranes. In general, the performances of hybrid technologies ranged from 60-100% but the application of MCN with high-pressure driven membranes demonstrated nearly complete removal. On the other hand, the industrial application of hybrid technology is still limited at the early stage of development. Moreover, the hybrid system required thorough investigations in terms of performance and system configuration for practical application in the future. Hence, this review paper focused on thorough evaluations of the synthesis, characterization, mechanisms, and performances of pristine adsorption and membrane separation. Then, it explores the potential performance of hybrid technologies and anticipates practical applications at full scale. Finally, concluding remarks and the future perspectives of the technologies are highlighted. In general, the study indicated the perspective of micropollutants management through membrane-adsorption hybrid technology as a potential candidate for pollution controlling and water sustainability. Such a hybrid system is a promising research area in the future of the water industry.