Advancements in reverse osmosis technology and economic prospects of desalination

For decades, groundwater has been used as the main source for domestic and agricultural purposes. It is anticipated that many cities around the globe may run out of water in near future. Under this scenario, desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis is an optimistic choice. In this paper, principle of reverse osmosis is discussed followed by brief descriptions about conventional membrane materials and components of a desalination plant. In the later part, the analysis of various systems has been carried out from energy consumption and economic standpoint to find out the optimized solution best on the results reported by different researchers. Conventional and non-conventional pre-treatment technologies have been compared and their merits and demerits have been pointed out. Emerging surface modification techniques are found to mitigate fouling. Ability of surface modified membranes to ensure better performance has also been addressed based on the available literature. Finally the challenges in using RO desalination technology has been presented and discussed.