4. Role of Microfiltration in the Treatment of Wastewater

Due to an increase exploitation of limited water resources and the necessity to maintain acceptable quality of the water, considerable attention has recently been focused on the 3R strategy (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle). Disposal of wastewater in water bodies has serious environmental consequences. Microfiltration is a new technique that employs membrane to remove both organic and inorganic pollutants from polluted wastewater. It is a low cost technology slowly gaining attraction because of its straightforward operation and waste removal efficiency. It is a physical filtration process that separates germs and suspended particles from fluid by passing it through a special pore sized layer. Microfiltration membrane technology is now widely used in the treatment of a wide variety of different kinds of wastewater, including oily wastewater and heavy metal wastewater, as a result of the development of membrane technology as well as the development of other emerging technologies in combination with it. The microfiltration technique and its use in the treatment of wastewater are discussed in this article. It offers a reliable assurance for the continuation of research into and application of water purification techniques.