APPLICATION OF ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGIES FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Abstract

In the face of water scarcity, the world seeks to explore all available options to reduce overexploitation and so limited freshwater resources. One of the most reliable available water resources is wastewater. As the world's population grows, so do industrial, agricultural, and domestic activities, which produce large amounts of such water that can be treated and reused. Sewage treatment processes have been somewhat successful in wastewater treatment, but many are high-tech and cost-effective. Membrane technology has become a favorite choice for the reclamation of water from various wastewater streams for reuse. Organic membranes are made of synthetic organic polymers. Pressure membranes are mainly produced for separation processes (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis) from synthetic organic polymers. These include polyethylene (PE), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polypropylene and cellulose acetate. In addition, membranes are made of materials such as ceramics, metals, zeolites or silica. They are chemically and thermally stable and are widely used for industrial purposes such as hydrogen separation, ultrafiltration and microfiltration. Pressure-controlled membrane technologies are the most widely used membrane processes in wastewater treatment, from previous contamination followed by additional treatment. These processes are based on microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). They are necessary but costly The choice of wastewater treatment option is based on comparative economic efficiency. The main ways to determine such efficiency are: pairwise comparison of options and determine the minimum of the reduced costs of the compared options. Pairwise comparison of options is carried out by determining the coefficients of comparative economic efficiency and payback periods of additional capital investments.