Page 12 - Membranes for Industrial Wastewater Recovery and Re-Use

Preface

In setting out to produce a book on any given subject, the primary questions to be
answered are: "What should we write about?" and "Who's going to buy it?".
These questions are obviously interlinked.
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.
Since the subject is very extensive the amount of detail is largely determined by
the target readership, which relates to the second key question. This is rather
vexing matter, not least because potential readers are well served by a number
excellent texts on membrane processes and technologies (Table 1) as well as a
growing number on water reclamation and reuse (Table 2). Neither of these
tables is comprehensive, and it can always be argued that there is really nothing
new to write about.
So, who might buy this book? What function is this book meant to serve?
Perhaps it is as well to outline what the book is not. The book is not meant to be a
comprehensive treatise on membrane processes and technologies, although an
outline of these areas is provided (Chapter 2) with reference to membrane
materials, modules, and processes along with governing equations for use in
system design. For more comprehensive information than that provided the
interested reader may seek out such tomes as those produced by Ho and Sirkar,
Rautenbach and Albrecht, and Scott (Table 1). Moreover, many of the industrial
process applications in which membranes find employment, such as the
biotechnology and food industries, are only briefly discussed with reference to a