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At the time of writing, there is much concern being expressed about the global environment and human influences upon it. Whether it is to do with climate change and its probable human cause; continued starvation in large regions of an otherwise
rich world; or the conversion of a runaway consumption to a sustainable expansion, large areas of the world are beginning to take note of changes in their environment, and of the need to make parallel changes to the way in which life is conducted; in particular, in energy consumption and fresh water provision.

The general importance of environmental protection justifies mention of the topic here – because filtration has a major role to play in many of the schemes trying to achieve this protection. Environmental protection legislation has been in place in the US and Europe for several decades now, but the beneficial effects are only just beginning to appear. Similar processes exist in other developed regions, but the developing countries have hard decisions to take over whether to let expansion run loose, to satisfy their people’ s natural wish for higher standards of living, or to rein it in, to give sustainability a chance.

The market forces exerted by the imposition of environmental legislation are an important driver for the filtration market. The legislation calls for waste minimization and for the treatment of unavoidable waste streams to continually higher standards, both of which are well met by available and developing types of filtration equipment.

The separations industry itself can make a useful contribution to energy conservation: all filters need some kind of driving force, especially in the higher pressure membrane systems, and the design of filter systems to minimize their energy demands
is an important feature of the development of such systems.

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