The pressure on available freshwater resources due to urbanization and climate change impacts is increasing worldwide; so follows the need to explore unconventional resources. Water reuse and desalination are viable options for alternative water supplies, also for regions that had no need to consider these approaches in the past. However, these solutions need to be tailored to local conditions, be balanced against conventional supply options while minimizing any adverse health and environmental impacts. There is increasing interest in developing new planning tools, technological solutions and approaches in this field to foster safe and economically viable water reuse and desalination applications. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) realized these needs at an early stage and launched the major funding initiative ‘WavE’ (www.bmbf-wave.de/en) in 2016 entitled ‘Future-oriented Technologies and Concepts to Increase Water Availability by Water Reuse and Desalination’ within the framework program ‘Research for Sustainable Development (FONA)’ and the research agenda on Green Economy. WavE is aimed at developing innovative technologies and management concepts to foster a sustainable increase in water availability. The aim is to provide sustainable solutions for national and international applications. This book reports research highlights from comprehensive research projects addressing contemporary approaches to evaluate new technologies and concepts in non-potable water reuse applications, multi-barrier concepts for potable and non-potable reuse applications, concepts for industrial reuse and resource recovery approaches for brine streams, as well as onsite desalination technologies for developing communities. In Focus – a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.

Expanding water reuse-the use of treated wastewater for beneficial purposes including irrigation, industrial uses, and drinking water augmentation-could significantly increase the nation's total available water resources. Water Reuse presents a portfolio of treatment options available to mitigate water quality issues in reclaimed water along with new analysis suggesting that the risk of exposure to certain microbial and chemical contaminants from drinking reclaimed water does not appear to be any higher than the risk experienced in at least some current drinking water treatment systems, and may be orders of magnitude lower. This report recommends adjustments to the federal regulatory framework that could enhance public health protection for both planned and unplanned (or de facto) reuse and increase public confidence in water reuse.

Over the past half century, reverse osmosis (RO) has grown from a nascent niche technology into the most versatile and effective desalination and advanced water treatment technology available. However, there remain certain challenges for improving the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of RO desalination plants in various applications. In low-pressure RO applications, both capital (CAPEX) and operating (OPEX) costs are largely influenced by product water recovery, which is typically limited by mineral scale formation. In seawater applications, recovery tends to be limited by the salinity limits on brine discharge and cost is dominated by energy demand. The combination of water scarcity and sustainability imperatives, in many locations, is driving system designs towards minimal and zero liquid discharge (M/ZLD) for inland brackish water, municipal and industrial wastewaters, and even seawater desalination. Herein, we review the basic principles of RO processes, the state-of-the-art for RO membranes, modules and system designs as well as methods for concentrating and treating brines to achieve MLD/ZLD, resource recovery and renewable energy powered desalination systems. Throughout, we provide examples of installations employing conventional and some novel approaches towards high recovery RO in a range of applications from brackish groundwater desalination to oil and gas produced water treatment and seawater desalination.

The book deals with the latest research on membrane distillation. New membrane and module designs, low-temperature applications, integration with other membrane units and pilot scale investigations are presented and discussed.

This book is part of a series on sustainability. Specifically, it deals with the issue of sustainable water use. Fresh sources of potable water are being depleted across the world. Pure water is the goal of water utilities as well as several industries. Well past the experimental stage, membrane processes are now a proven and reliable method of providing high-quality, cost-effective water. Membrane technologies have immediate applications to treatment of fresh, brackish and sea waters, as well as wastewater reclamation. With innovative module design and engineering, micro- and ultra-filtrations have become effective and economical for drinking water production, particularly for removal of microorganisms. Membrane bioreactors are being developed for municipal and industrial water recycling. Various membrane processes are also used to remove contaminants from industrial wastewaters. This book covers the fundamental and practical concepts and issues regarding the application of membrane technologies for sustainable water treatment. It describes and compares the effectiveness of desalination versus water recycling for long-term sustainable water use. - Describes the global water situation with respect to sustainability - Emphasizes the role of membrane technologies - Compares the strategies of water recycling and desalination

The Bureau of Reclamation and Sandia National Laboratories jointly developed the Roadmap to serve as a strategic research pathway for desalination and water purification technologies to meet future water needs. The book recommends that the Roadmap include a sharper focus on the research and technological advancements needed to reach the long-term objectives. The book also suggests that the environmental, economic, and social costs of energy required by increased dependence on desalination be examined. Strategies for implementing the Roadmap initiative are provided.

The focus of Water-Energy Interactions in Water Reuse is to collect original contributions and some relevant publications from recent conference proceedings in order to provide state-of-art information on the use of energy in wastewater treatment and reuse systems. Special focus is given to innovative technologies, such as membrane bioreactors, high pressure membrane filtration systems, and novel water reuse processes. A comparison of energy consumption in water reuse systems and desalination will be also provided. Water-Energy Interactions in Water Reuse covers the use of energy in conventional and advanced wastewater treatment for various water reuse applications, including carbon footprint, energy efficiency, energy self-sufficient facilities and novel technologies, such as microbial fuel cells and biogas valorisation. It is of real value to water utility managers; policy makers for water and wastewater treatment; water resources planners, and researchers and students in environmental engineering and science. Editors: Valentina Lazarova, Suez Environnement, France, Kwang-Ho Choo, Kyungpook National University, Korea, Peter Cornel, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany