Integrated membrane operations for seawater desalination

Integrated membrane systems are proposed for seawater desalination as innovative way to increase the fresh water recovery factor, improve the final water quality, reduce the problem of the brine disposal. In particular, the membrane units analysed are nanofiltration (to remove bivalent ions), membrane contactors (to control the content of gas in the water), reverse osmosis, membrane crystallizers (to further concentrate the reverse osmosis and nanofiltration retentates in order to produce valuable salt crysstals and to reduce the amount of brine to be disposed)