Extending the life-cycle of reverse osmosis membranes: A review

The reverse osmosis (RO) technology for desalination and demineralization serves the global water crisis context, both technically and economically, and its market is growing. However, RO membranes have a limited life-cycle and are often disposed of in landfills. The impacts caused by the disposal of thousands of tonnes per annum of RO membranes have grown dramatically around the world. Waste prevention should have a high priority and take effect before the end-of-life phase of a product is reached. In this review, a summary is presented of the main advances in the performance of the RO technology and the membrane lifespan. Afterwards, this paper reviews the most important relevant literature and summarizes the key findings of the research on reusing and recycling the discarded modules for the purpose of extending the life-cycle of the RO membranes. In addtion, there are some recent researches that indicated recycling RO membranes for use by the microfiltration or ultrafiltration separation processes is a promising solution to the disposal problem. However, there are many gaps and differences in procedures and results. This article also discusses and brings to light key parameters involved and controversies about oxidative treatment of discarded RO membranes.