The development and implementation of advanced water treatment and purification technologies require consideration of the applicable range of technology capacity and scale, capital and operational expenditures, regulatory compliance, market viability, and environmental impacts. This presentation will highlight key fundamental scientific and engineering questions that have been addressed over the last four decades in developing practical solutions for selective separations using high performance selective sorption resins, pervaporation membranes, tunable UF membranes, and responsive NF and RO membranes for water treatment and desalination. Selected presented examples will illustrate the progressive advancement toward high performance membranes and integrated UF/NF/RO processes, including: (i) surface engineering with tethered polymer chains; (ii) real-time direct monitoring and mitigation of membrane fouling/scaling; (iii) novel configurations to reduce system footprint and improve performance efficiency; (iv) energy-optimal operation; (v) self-adaptive UF/RO systems; (vi) remote real-time membrane system monitoring; (vii) sensor fault isolation and soft sensor development; (viii) cyberinfrastructure for asset management and supervisory control; and (ix) machine learning-based predictive models for performance forecasting, soft sensor implementation, and operational decision support. Development of the above applications and their extensive field implementation will be presented, including seawater desalination, agricultural drainage water treatment, and purification and desalting of impaired groundwater for potable use.
