Membrane-based techniques for pollutants removal: An outlook on recent advancements

Improper disposal of emerging contaminants (ECs) such as pharmaceutical wastes, textile dyes, hazardous chemicals, toxic metals, etc., leads to severe water and environmental pollution and also poses a major threat to human health. These ECs are generated through various industrial processes like food processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, dyeing, tanning, etc. In general, various treatment practices (biological, chemical and physical methods) have been followed in the industries to achieve effective removal of toxic ECs and also to comply with stringent environmental standards. Among the various treatment methods, membrane systems are effective over the conventional industrial effluent treatment techniques with lower operating costs and minimal energy requirements. In this work, applications of membrane systems such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and forward osmosis processes, as well as hybrid processes for the effective removal of ECs are reviewed based on the published results of the last three years.