Opportunities for process intensification in the UK water industry: A review

Process Intensification (PI) refers to the use of novel process technologies to achieve significant (order of magnitude) size reduction in individual unit operations, or the complete removal of process steps by performing multiple functions in fewer steps. This should lead to significant reductions in capital and running costs, and improvements in process efficiency and safety. There are numerous examples of PI being successfully implemented in the oil and gas, pharmaceutical, food and drink, and fine chemical industries, but few in the water industry. There are however a range of drivers for process intensification within the water industry. These include ever more stringent environmental standards and more intractable pollutants. The aim of this review was to identify PI technologies that could be used in the future UK water industry, but require further technical development (to increase their TRL), or transfer from other industries. Recommendations for technologies are given, as well as routes to their implementation.