Foreword

Membrane and membrane-based separation processes have become the leading separation technology in a wide range of applications in water recycle and reuse, desalination, energy efficiency, process intensification and purification of therapeutics. They are expected to play an even more critical role in future manufacturing systems. To comprehend the recent development of the membrane technology, we put forward this special issue titled “‘Membrane and membrane processes for solving global challenges’” in 2022 based on presentation given at the Symposium with the same topic at the Pacifichem 16-21 December 2021. This special issue aims to collect papers intending to solve key problems using various membrane technologies individually or as a hybrid process. We are pleased to inform that this special issue will be published as a collection volume in 2023. This collection volume covers latest development of various membrane technologies and diverse applications includes design of novel structure hollow fiber membranes for process intensification (Zhang et al.), membrane surface modification as a photothermal materials for oily wastewater solar evaporation (Earwood et al.), a review on polymeric membranes for carbon dioxide capture from syngas (Rao et al.), composite membranes for ethylene/ ethane separation (Monteleone et al.), siloxane crosslinked graphene oxide membranes with improved chlorine resistance (El Meragawi et al.), ceramic membrane for silica recovery and treatment of semiconductor- industry wastewater (Vijayan et al.), an integrated NF-MD process for treatment of emulsified wastewater (John et al.) and a review on responsive membrane functionalization and applications (Mills et al.). We are very delighted to present this special issue of Separation Science and Technology and hope you will get some new knowledge, enjoyment and ideas from reading this special issue.