Sustainability and How Membrane Technologies in Water Treatment Can Be a Contributor

Water treatment technologies inherit the environmental, economic, and societal burdens either from polluted natural sources for potable water, or from domestic sewer water for municipal wastewater treatment plants, or from various industrial processing plants that produce highly contaminated wastewater. Application of various membrane technologies for wastewater has been growing because they enjoy relative advantage over other technologies in terms of sustainability. This advantage mainly emanates from economic benefits, ease of operation and safety. This chapter discusses what sustainability means forwastewater treatment and what specific sustainability advantages membrane processes can demonstrate. Applicable sustainability indicators are identified for various membrane technologies that can tackle a large number of wastewater problems.