Membranes and Membrane Processes

This chapter presents the development of membranes and membrane processes. The first part of this chapter addresses the fundamental principle of the membrane, including the definition of a membrane and its performance parameters, i.e., flux and selectivity. The membrane processes are influenced by their classifications, i.e., membrane's material type, separation regime, and membrane geometry. The examples of membrane processes according to a driving force such as transmembrane pressure (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis), concentration gradient (forward osmosis), and vapor partial pressure gradient (gas separation, membrane distillation) are included. The chapter ends with a discussion on the fouling issues in membrane applications.