Global increases in industrialization and urbanisation have had a profound impact on the environment. Every year, tons of wastewater containing hazardous chemicals and heavy metals are being released and filled in landfill, causing considerable damage and imbalance to the ecosystem. Several desalination plants established in industry face a major difficulty in the treatment or removal of toxic heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury, chromium, zinc, phosphorus, and lead. Pollution and depletion of existing waterbodies has caused major problems due to water shortage and scarcity for the survival of living organisms. According to WHO, by 2025 half of the world’s population will be living their lives in water stressed areas. Furthermore, at least 2 billion people use contaminated water for drinking, which leads to several health concerns. Thus, the immediate solution to fulfil the regular necessity of water to living organisms is recycling and desalination of water using different scientific strategies and techniques.

Desalination is practised for the treatment of saline water in the Middle East and African countries due to shortages in fresh water sources. However, the usage of desalination techniques is still questionable due to their efficacy, regular changes in the membrane, membrane performance, changing sea water conditions, fouling, costing, scaling, energy recovery, and the type of membrane used for desalination technique. Among these factors, the major criteria are the type of materials and design used to make a membrane for desalination. Usage of optimised membranes and understanding the heavy metal interaction with the membrane provides successful treatment and desalination for recycling water. Apart from this, the usage of microbial fuel cells and membrane deionization also provides efficient removal of heavy metals and toxic chemical compounds from the water, and inorganic membranes made of metallic oxides (alumina, silica, and zirconia) and zeolites have recently become a point of interest. It is also necessary to understand the interaction of microbes and heavy metals with membranes for the treatment of wastewater. The different types of membrane and heavy metal interactions include adsorption-based separation, membrane-based filtration and separation, chemical-based separation, electric-based separation, and photocatalytic separation of wastewater. Moreover, geopolymer materials are also practicable options. Apart from desalination techniques, the microalgae growth within wastewater also removes the presence of heavy toxic metals. Microalgae absorbs metals in the wastewater as nutrients for their growth. The cultivated microalgae can be used to generate bio-oil and biomass.

This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles with a focus on the removal of toxic pollutants in wastewater with the aid of inorganic membranes.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Porous inorganic polymer microspheres for the adsorptive removal
• Fabrication and characterization of inorganic desalination membranes
• Membrane fouling and its mitigation strategies
• Inorganic membranes for wastewater treatment and desalination
• Microbes and heavy metal interactions for wastewater treatment
• Membrane and heavy metal interactions for wastewater treatment
• Nanoparticles and biomaterials in reverse osmosis membranes
• Membrane element and system energy and productivity losses
• Assessment and design of industrial wastewater for future bio-refinery
• Effect of adsorption on membrane bioreactors for the treatment of industrial wastewater
• Split-part two-pass RO system design
• Hybrid membrane configuration
• Microalgae cultivation in industrial wastewater and its value-added products
• Synthesis of low cost geopolymer inorganic membrane