Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment ─ Removal of Toxic Trace Elements With Emphasis on Arsenic, Fluoride and Uranium

Focussing on the application of membrane technologies in removing toxic metals\metalloids from water. Particular attention is devoted to the removal of arsenic, uranium, and fluoride. These compounds are all existing in the earth’s crust at levels between two and five thousands micrograms per kg (parts per million) on average and these compounds can be considered highly toxic to humans, who are exposed to it primarily from air, food and water. In order to comply with the new maximum contaminant level, numerous studies have been undertaken to improve established treatments or to develop novel treatment technologies for removing toxic metals from contaminated surface and groundwater. Among the technologies available, applicable for water treatment, membrane technology has been identified as a promising technology to remove such toxic metals from water. The book describes both pressure driven (traditional processes, such as Nanofiltration, Reverse Osmosis, Ultrafiltration,etc) and more advanced membrane processes (such as forward osmosis, membrane distillation, membrane bio-reactors) employed in the application of interest. Key aspect of this book is to provide information on both the basics of membrane technologies and on the results depending on the type of technology employed.

Born 1970 in La Spezia, Italy. Alberto Figoli got his PhD in Chemical Technologies at the Membrane Technology Group, University of Twente (The Netherlands), in 2001. Since 2001, he is working as permanent researcher at the Institute on Membrane Technology, ITM-CNR (Italy). He is expert in the field of membrane technology, particularly in membrane preparation and characterisation and membrane operations related to environmental issues.
He attended more than 100 national and international conferences on membranes with oral and poster presentations and as chairman. He also presented lectures at courses on membrane operations as invited speaker. In 2006, he received the prize on Scientific Productivity "Food Packaging Research GSICA Awards", on the basis of the scientific work he carried out during the years on food packaging issues. He presented several book chapters on Membrane Preparation and Application and he is author of more than 60 scientific papers published in international journals and of a US patent on membrane technology application. Alberto is member of several associations that deal with membranes (EMS, GISCA) and is involved as scientific responsible for ITM-CNR in several national and international and Eurpean projects.