Membrane Biofouling: Current Understanding and Future Perspectives- An Overview

Membrane technology is a compelling alternative for addressing some water quality issues on a global scale. Despite the demonstrated success of membrane technology, biofouling remains a persistent problem in membrane filtration processes. The impact of biofouling compromises the application and efficiency of the filtration processes by shortening membrane lifespan, reducing permeate output, increasing the energy requirements, and increasing the transmembrane pressure. All these factors combined impact treatment plant operations. Biofouling is reported to contribute ~ 45% of all membrane fouling and between 20 and 30% of operating costs. This review critically examines the factors driving membrane biofouling and evaluates conventional mitigation strategies, highlighting their limited long-term effectiveness, high operational costs, and environmental drawbacks. Various technologies discussed in this paper have been developed to mitigate biofouling; however, due to the complexity and intractability of biofouling, their efficiency is limited. Hybrid systems are in part proposed as a sustainable antibiofouling approach to overcome the limitations of conventional biofouling mitigation technologies.