ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THE USE OF REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANE ELEMENTS, AND WAYS TO SOLVE THEM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20535/2218-930012022259491Keywords:
reverse osmosis spiral membrane elements, desalination, fouling, reuse, utilizationAbstract
More than 70 percent of our planet is covered with water. And yet water is a scarce resource, and it is our future. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 1.1 billion people do not have access to it, and 2.7 billion experience a shortage of drinking water at least once a year. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may face water shortages.
The shortage of drinking water and the search for renewable resources are of the most important problems in the modern world, the solution of which is directed to considerable intellectual and financial resources. Reverse osmosis is one of the most common technologies for obtaining high-quality drinking water. Technological solutions constantly improve the process of reverse osmosis and reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane elements used, science and business go hand in hand. But the price of this progress is the annual generation of a large amount of waste generated from used reverse osmosis roll membrane elements, which are usually sent to the landfill, while there are no technological solutions for their disposal.
This work provides information on the available amount of such waste in the world and the dynamics of its growth in order to assess the scale of environmental damage that occurs as a result.
The work collected information about the market of reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane elements in the world, and directions of their use. The structure, composition of components and technical characteristics of reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane elements are considered in detail, which makes it possible to evaluate the ways and possibilities of their utilization. The problems of surface contamination due to various types of fouling are considered. The main attention in the work is given to the reasons that cause the formation of waste. Based on the collected data, the scale of annual waste generation, which is formed due to spent reverse osmosis roll membrane elements, was analyzed. The possibility of reusing reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane elements and the main methods of their safe disposal are also considered. Summarizing the work carried out, recommendations were made on ways to solve the problem.
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Copyright (c) 2022 A. V. Tyvonenko, T. Ye. Mitchenko, S. L. Vasilyuk
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