摘要
Low pressure membranes represent an important technology for the general water and wastewater treatment felds.For purposes of this paper,low pressure membranes are defined as including microfiltration (MF),ultrafiltration(UF),and membrane bioreactors (MBR).Ultrafiltration was explored and developed more than forty years ago for very specific applications in the food,pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.These specialized membranes underwent a development period similar to reverse osmosis.They were used for many different niche applications,before its broadest applications were recognized.This report is a view of the current status of this industry and reports actual installed capacity through the end of the year 2006.