A Review on Boron Removal from Seawater Using Reverse Osmosis Technology

It is predicted that by 2050, more than 48% of the world's population will face water shortages. Desalination of seawater as the best way to supply fresh water has been on the rise for the past three decades. Membrane desalination methods, especially reverse osmosis, have become more popular than other methods due to their lower energy consumption. Despite the success of this method in removing seawater salts, contaminants such as boron are still found in the produced water due to the presence of boron as boric acid in seawater, which due to its small molecular size, leaks into the produced water through membranes. The average concentration of boron in seawater is 4.6 mg/l, which comes from various natural sources such as volcanic activity as well as anthropogenic sources. High levels of boron are harmful to human health and agricultural products. Factors such as pH, temperature and ionic strength of feed water have a great impact on boron removal in membrane processes. By examining credible sources, while pointing to the importance of boron and its removal methods, this validity review article addresses the challenges of boron removal by reverse osmosis as the most common seawater desalination technology.