Membranes for Industrial Wastewater Recovery and Re-use

Dr Judd is a Reader in Water Sciences at Cranfield University with over 15 years experience of industrial and academic R&D, having spent three years in nuclear waste management and two years in forensic science. In his current post he has conducted research into a wide range of chemical and, principally, membrane processes as applied to water and wastewater treatment. Topics have included municipal and domestic wastewater treatment and reuse using membrane bioreactors, nanofiltration of dye waste for water recovery and scale mitigation in reverse osmosis for flux enhancement.

The subject area of this book is well defined in the title: membrane technology and its application to industrial water recycling. There can be little doubt of the importance of recycling of water contaminated by industrial activity, and it is hoped that the introduction to this book (Chapter 1) sufficiently emphasises this point. Stresses imposed on freshwater supplies continue to grow and environmental legislation relating to discharges becomes ever more rigorous. Given that technologies for water purification are tending to become more efficient and generally cost-effective, it is inevitable that recovery and reuse of effluent will be more widespread in the future. It is also the case that membrane processes play a pivotal role in many reclamation and reuse schemes in industry. Their application across all industrial sectors has increased exponentially over the last twenty years and there is little sign of this growth abating.