Shortage of freshwater is a global challenge related to population growth, changes in climate conditions and industrial and agricultural needs. Thus, sustainable freshwater production through desalination and wastewater treatment is essential for various human purposes. Membrane distillation (MD) is a recent thermal driven membrane based purification technology with capability to eliminate the limitations of traditional desalination technologies by a synergistic exploitation of the nexus between water and energy. Though MD is recognized as an ecofriendly technology, input heat energy utilization and its efficient management remains a challenge influencing the economic viability of the technology and hindering its realistic applications. To solve this problem, it requires an integrative approach involving materials chemistry, physical chemistry, polymer science, and materials engineering. In addition to the use of robust wetting and fouling resistant membranes, employing the newly developed self-surface heating membranes such as photothermal, joule heating and induction heating membranes have not only minimized energy requirement and fouling issues of MD technology but also enabled it to be considered as potential and economically viable approach for producing high-quality freshwater with negligible carbon footprint. Specifically, recent studies on self-surface heating membranes, utilizing nanomaterials with photothermal, conductive, and magnetic properties, have revealed new possibilities for renewable energy utilization in MD technology. Through direct irradiation or photovoltaic energy conversion, nanomaterial-integrated membranes significantly enhance MD's energy efficiency and productivity without compromising cost-effectiveness, opening avenues for sustainable desalination and water purification technologies. Here, we furnish a comprehensive state of the art overview on (1) the progress of conventional antifouling MD membranes and (2) the opportunities, challenges and limitations of the emerging field of self-surface heated MD (i.e., photothermal MD (PMD), Joule-heating MD and Induction heated MD). We also discuss the exceptional physicochemical properties, antifouling properties, fabrication and scalability of self-surface heating membranes, as well as the strategies for their deployment into MD modules enabling localization of heat at the membrane surface for direct feed heating, thereby leading to sustainable freshwater production.

中文翻译：

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用于可持续生产淡水的自表面加热膜蒸馏：最先进的概述


淡水短缺是与人口增长、气候条件变化以及工业和农业需求相关的全球性挑战。因此，通过海水淡化和废水处理实现可持续淡水生产对于人类的各种目的至关重要。膜蒸馏（MD）是一种最新的热驱动膜净化技术，能够通过水和能源之间关系的协同开发来消除传统海水淡化技术的局限性。尽管MD被认为是一种环保技术，但输入热能的利用及其有效管理仍然是影响该技术的经济可行性并阻碍其实际应用的挑战。为了解决这个问题，需要采用材料化学、物理化学、高分子科学和材料工程的综合方法。除了使用坚固的防润湿和防污膜外，采用新开发的自表面加热膜（例如光热膜、焦耳加热膜和感应加热膜）不仅最大限度地减少了 MD 技术的能源需求和污垢问题，而且还使其能够被认为是生产碳足迹可忽略不计的优质淡水的潜在且经济可行的方法。具体来说，最近对自表面加热膜的研究，利用具有光热、导电和磁性的纳米材料，揭示了MD技术中可再生能源利用的新可能性。 通过直接照射或光伏能量转换，纳米材料集成膜显着提高了 MD 的能源效率和生产力，同时又不影响成本效益，为可持续海水淡化和水净化技术开辟了道路。在这里，我们对 (1) 传统防污 MD 膜的进展和 (2) 自表面加热 MD（即光热 MD (PMD)）新兴领域的机遇、挑战和局限性提供了全面的最新技术概述。 、焦耳加热 MD 和感应加热 MD）。我们还讨论了自表面加热膜的卓越理化特性、防污特性、制造和可扩展性，以及将其部署到 MD 模块中的策略，使热量能够定位在膜表面以直接进料加热，从而产生可持续的淡水生产。