| The reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology achieved breakthrough progress in the 1960s, resulting in fast development of seawater reverse osmosis desalination over the past half century. The world's desalination capacity has been rapidly increasing since 1990. Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination has become a novel process for producing drinking water from seawater with the lowest investments and costs. This paper systematically reviews the development status of SWRO technology, such as improvement in membrane performance and related element structure, efficiency enhancement of high pressure pumps and energy recovery devices (ERD), unceasing development of technical processes including pretreatment and post-treatment, as well as impacts on the environment and related countermeasures. The development of RO technology has also promoted the progress of other membrane separation processes and extended their application fields. In the near future, it can be predicted that the membrane-based technologies will play an increasingly prominent role in seawater desalination and water reuse, augmentation and protection of water resources, cicular economy, clean production, traditional industry updating, energy conservation and emission reduction as well as enhancement of people's living standards. |
