Seawater desalination market after global economic crisis has been stalled due to the market uncertainties and decreased demand in desalination. It is important to review the status of the market and to estimate the appropriate share of Forward osmosis-Reverse Osmosis (FO-RO) hybrid desalination technology by figuring out the outlook of the desalination market. Main part of the desalination market will still be MENA (Middle East and North Africa) in the near future due to the fast population increase and high dependency of fossil fuel in the region. The market for FO-RO hybrid technology, however, might be smaller than the conventional SWRO desalination market anyway because of aesthetic issues from using wastewater as raw water and higher costs associated with capex. Therefore, it is essential to improve FO membrane performance and system operation technologies in order to make the hybrid technology attractive compared to the conventional SWRO technology.

• 김자겸(㈜유신) | Jakyum Kim (Yooshin Engineering Corporation)
• 한지희(국민대학교 건설시스템공학부) | Jihee Han (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kookmin University)
• 손진식(국민대학교 건설시스템공학부) | Jinsik Sohn (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kookmin University) Corresponding author
• 김승현(경남대학교 토목공학과) | Seung-Hyun Kim (Department of Civil Engineering, Kyungnam University)