Photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs) have been found to be very effective in the removal of organic pollutants (particularly recalcitrant compounds) from wastewater because they allow for the mineralization of organic pollutants to innocuous by-products, thus achieving high-quality treated water. Owing to the very high volumes of water involved, treated sewage wastewater could be reused if a very efficient tertiary stage, like a PMR, can be foreseen. In this review, the two main PMR configurations (photocatalytic membranes and slurry PMRs) were analyzed as requirements of a tertiary treatment of sewage wastewater considering six design and operational parameters of such plants: (i) continuous wastewater flow rate from the secondary stage; (ii) the self-control of the photodegradation rate related to wastewater chemical–physical parameters; (iii) ability to handle variations of wastewater concentration and flow rate; (iv) the control of the quality of treated wastewater; (v) low plant footprint; and (vi) easy maintenance. In this analysis, some characteristics of photocatalysis (which involves three phases: solid (the photocatalyst), liquid (the wastewater), and gas (oxygen or air)) and those of membranes (they can be produced using different materials and configurations, different processes (pressure-driven or not pressure-driven), etc.) were considered. The obtained results show that slurry PMRs seem more suitable than photocatalytic membranes for such applications. We believe this review can trigger a shift in research from the laboratory to industry in using photocatalytic membrane reactors.

Industrial wastewater treatment

10.3390/catal13081204

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Citations (15)

Partial Oxidation of Benzene to Phenol in a Biphasic Membrane Contactor using Vanadium Based Catalysts and Study of Membrane Resistance

Pietro Argurio Raffaele Molinari Teresa Poerio

Membrane reactor

Partial oxidation

Contactor

Source

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Total and parial oxidation reactions in photocatalytic membrane reactors

Angela Caruso Raffaele Molinari

Membrane reactor

10.13126/unical.it/dottorati/768

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Study and Comparison of Two Enzyme Membrane Reactors for Fatty Acids and Glycerol Production

Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (1994)

Raffaele Molinari Maria Elena Santoro Enrico Drioli

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTStudy and Comparison of Two Enzyme Membrane Reactors for Fatty Acids and Glycerol ProductionRaffaele Molinari, Maria Elena Santoro, and Enrico DrioliCite this: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1994, 33, 11, 2591–2599Publication Date (Print):November 1, 1994Publication History Published online1 May 2002Published inissue 1 November 1994https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ie00035a010https://doi.org/10.1021/ie00035a010research-articleACS PublicationsRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views205Altmetric-Citations37LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose Get e-Alerts

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10.1021/ie00035a010

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PMRs Utilizing Pressure-Driven Membrane Techniques

Elsevier eBooks (2018)

Sylwia Mozia Pietro Argurio Raffaele Molinari

Backwashing

Ultrafiltration (renal)

Membrane reactor

Nanofiltration

10.1016/b978-0-12-813549-5.00004-9

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Citations (1)