Water desalination is considered one of the most critical separation technologies that suffer from several drawbacks, such as the power consumption that controls the separation efficiency. Microfluidics technology provided a unique opportunity to introduce cutting edge products and to re‐visit existing technologies like desalination for evaluation, optimization, and new product introduction purposes. It is believed that the micro‐mixing and micro‐separation features in a microfluidic flow system will contribute significantly to enhance the desalination performance of known desalination techniques. Micro‐mixing and micro‐separation in a microfluidic device can eliminate the poor mixing and separation efficiency observed with the bench‐scaled systems due to the high‐precision droplet generation and microfluidic separation features. This review discusses the current state of microfluidic desalination, its operating theory, and its limitations. Additionally, the current technology is reviewed to shed some light on the feasibility of scaling up water production rates. The gap between the application of microfluidic desalination and industrial scale‐up is also described briefly.

中文翻译：

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微流体脱盐：可持续水资源的新时代

水脱盐被认为是最关键的分离技术之一，它具有许多缺点，例如控制分离效率的功耗。微流体技术提供了一个独特的机会来引入最先进的产品，并重新访问现有技术（如脱盐）以进行评估，优化和新产品的引入。可以相信，微流体流动系统中的微混合和微分离功能将极大地提高已知脱盐技术的脱盐性能。微流控设备中的微混合和微分离可以消除由于精密液滴生成和微流分离功能而导致的台式规模化系统的不良混合和分离效率。这篇综述讨论了微流体脱盐的现状，其工作原理及其局限性。此外，对当前技术进行了审查，以阐明扩大水生产率的可行性。还简要介绍了微流体脱盐的应用与工业规模放大之间的差距。