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Dialysis opens a new pathway for high-salinity organic wastewater treatment

Nature Water volume 3, pages 49–58 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

High-salinity organic wastewaters pose a major challenge for conventional wastewater treatment processes. Here we propose dialysis as an innovative solution to overcome this challenge. Dialysis uses an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane that allows the passage of salts while rejecting the organic substances, operating in a bilateral countercurrent flow mode without the application of hydraulic pressure. Using bench-scale experiments and a model for salt and water transport in leaky membranes, we demonstrate that dialysis can effectively desalinate high-salinity organic wastewaters without diluting the wastewater stream. By comparing the salt/organic selectivity of dialysis and UF using the same membrane, we show that dialysis can effectively fractionate salts and organic substances in high-salinity organic wastewaters. Additionally, we find that, unlike UF, dialysis is almost unaffected by membrane fouling, highlighting its excellent fouling resistance. We conclude by proposing potential high-salinity organic wastewater treatment schemes based on dialysis, paving the way for more sustainable and effective management of challenging wastewaters.

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Fig. 1: Membrane-based technologies for high-salinity organic wastewater treatment.
Fig. 2: Effectiveness of dialysis in high-salinity organic wastewater desalination.
Fig. 3: Effectiveness of dialysis in salt/organic fractionation.
Fig. 4: Fouling resistance of dialysis in high-salinity organic wastewater treatment.
Fig. 5: Potential high-salinity organic wastewater treatment schemes based on dialysis.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. Source data for figures are also available publicly via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26309704 (ref. 59).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the financial support from the Basic Science Center Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52388101).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yuanmiaoliang Chen, Longchao Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Ecological Security and Green Development, Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, School of Ecology, Environment and Resources, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Yuanmiaoliang Chen, Longchao Wang, Xuan Zhang & Zhangxin Wang

  2. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Martina del Cerro

  3. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Li Wang

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Menachem Elimelech

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  1. Yuanmiaoliang Chen
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  4. Li Wang
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  5. Xuan Zhang
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Contributions

Y.C. and Z.W. designed the experiment and wrote the initial draft. Longchao W. performed the experiments. Y.C. and Li W. conducted model development and data fitting. M.d.C. and X.Z. assisted in interpreting the results and revised the manuscript. Z.W. and M.E. conceived the idea, supervised the research and revised the manuscript. All authors participated in the discussion.

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Correspondence to Menachem Elimelech or Zhangxin Wang.

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Chen, Y., Wang, L., del Cerro, M. et al. Dialysis opens a new pathway for high-salinity organic wastewater treatment. Nat Water 3, 49–58 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00368-6

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