Abstract

The concern over increasing needs for drinking water and awareness for development of systems to improve water quality both for drinking purposes and for effluents from wastewater treatment and industrial facilities have provided incentives to develop new technologies and improve performance of existing technologies. In this paper, the patents on treatment of water and wastewater approved during the period from 1999 to 2007 were reviewed. The patents surveyed were classified into two groups as technologies for water purification systems for drinking water, and technologies for treatment of wastewater. An assessment of the current and future outlook for development of new technologies, methods of treatment, equipment and instruments which can be used for water and wastewater treatment applications are presented.

Keywords: Water treatment, water filtration, ultrapure water, wastewater treatment, ion exchange, disinfection, sorption, membrane filtration, nanofiltration, wastewater