Perspectives on environmental ethics in sustainability of membrane based technologies for water and energy production

•Assessed environmental impact from the emerging desalination technologies.•Sustainability of desalination technologies evaluated.•Methodology in consideration of environmental ethics for justification of sustainability.•Process intensification and new developments as mitigation strategies.•Future research directions in sustaining water and energy production technologies indicated.

Securing a sustainable supply of water and energy is nowadays a key global issue. In the current practice of water and energy supply, there is still some gap in meeting the value criteria for sustainable development mainly related to environmental pollution as well as ecosystem disturbances. In this work, the sustainability of integrated membrane based processes for water and energy production is assessed with a special focus on environmental and ecosystem impacts. Feasibility of bridging the available gaps through process performance improvements is presented. Major environmental impacts from hybrid membrane based technologies for water and energy production are identified and considered for upstream balance of social benefits and burdens to the present and future generations. Ethical considerations were pointed mainly in the aspect of intergenerational justice (IRG-J) and ecological justice (EC-J) while setting value criteria for sustainability. The ethical significance of the identified impacts was predicted based on the associated difficulties to meet these criteria. The overall outcome will be beneficial in designing strategies for development and implementation of sustainable hybrid processes for clean water and energy production.

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