Membranes for Water and Wastewater Treatment

Water is a vital element for life and the environment. Water pollution has beendocumented as a contributor to a wide range of health problems. In recent years thewater quality levels have suffered great deterioration because of rapid social andeconomic development and because it is used to dump a wide range of pollutants.This book entitled Membranes for Water and Wastewater Treatment contains featuredresearch papers dealing with recent developments and advances in all aspects related tomembranes for water and wastewater treatment: membrane processes combinedprocesses (including one membrane step) modified membranes new materials and thepossibility to reduce fouling and to improve the efficiency of enhanced processes. Thepapers compiled in this Special Issue can be read as a response to the current needs andchallenges in membrane development for water and wastewater treatment.Half of the research articles correspond to concrete and practical applications of the useof membrane processes in different fields of the industry with the aim of treating andconditioning water and wastewater. The studies reveal the treatment of industrialstreams mining recycled paper industry olive mill urban wastewater etc. Anotherimportant percentage of studies are related to membrane modification processes withthe aim of obtaining new materials with better performance in the separation processes thus describing the use of membranes modified with chitosan nanoparticles and otherorganic compounds. This field also includes studies related to fouling and its modeling.