Pre-treatment Methods for Seawater Desalination and Industrial Wastewater Treatment : A Brief Review

Feed water that need to be pre-treated before using methods such as, microfiltration, Ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis is characterized by containing turbidity, bacterial content and total dissolved solid which causes fouling and scaling in membrane performance. Thus, it is necessary to develop a method which is cost effective. Pre-treatment has been shown as a good method to enhance the performance and reducing the cost of replacement for membrane of the RO/NF as it helps to remove turbidity, bacteria and TDS (Total dissolve solid), COD and Colour. In this paper, a brief review on the pretreatment in different industry will be clarified such as pretreatment of seawater, and wastewater treatment. Basically, methods of pretreatment can be categorized as coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, ozonation and etc. Therefore, this review can provide a better alternative in solving the membrane fouling and scaling problem.