Bibliometric analysis of research progress in membrane water treatment technology from 1985 to 2013

Research progress in membrane water treatment technology during 1985–2013 was analyzed based on the bibliometric analysis of published papers in ISI Web of Science Core Collection (Science Citation Index-Expanded, SCI-E) database, and patents in Derwent Innovation Index database. The searched data (18,075 SCI papers and 19,182 patents) were statistically analyzed from different time, countries, research institutions, mainstream technologies and application industries. The results indicated that, the number of papers and patents on the membrane water treatment technology showed an increasing trend. The United States and China published the most SCI papers and patents in this field, respectively. China has become one of the major countries in this field, but the research level should be further improved. The research levels of the United States, Germany and France were in the international leading level in this field. Japan published a small quantity of SCI papers, but possessed many patents and ranked in second place. Moreover, the patentees of the top 10 all belonged to Japanese companies or enterprises. The mainstream technologies in the field of membrane water treatment included microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, pervaporation and liquid membrane. Among these technologies, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and nanofiltration were the research hotspots in SCI papers, while reverse osmosis and liquid membrane were the research hotspots in patents. These mainstream technologies were mainly used for the treatment of drinking water and desalination of seawater or brackish water, and it is necessary to promote the application of membrane technologies in industrial wastewater treatment.

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