Future Direction of Seawater Desalination by Reverse Osmosis Process

The present situation for seawater desalination technology was introduced by comparing distillation processes (MSF and MED) with the reverse osmosis process. That led to the finding that the reverse process is essentially more favorable than distillation processes. It was followed by the recent trend for desalination process selection in the world and specific regions. Next, the technology tendency was explained in terms of the following issues: (1) Progress of membrane technology (2) Improvement in efficiency of membrane module (3) Trend of pretreatment (4) Reduction of energy consumption (5) Rationalization of systems Based on the above analysis, a future strategy to be taken by Japan was discussed. The suggestion was that intensive research and development for pretreatment improvement should be carried out in order to maintain the present Japanese superiority in membrane technology.