Membrane crystallization for water sustainability: Scientific paradigms reshaping technology

Membrane Crystallization (MCr) is an emerging hybrid water separation technology that combines membrane processes with crystallization to generate controlled supersaturation via selective solvent or antisolvent transport, enabling precise control of crystal nucleation and growth kinetics. This study utilizes bibliometric analysis, machine learning, and data mining to systematically investigate scientific trends, publication patterns, key contributors, linguistic features, and technological developments in the MCr field. A total of 273 Scopus-indexed publications (1991–2025) were analyzed, revealing a rapidly expanding and increasingly collaborative research area, with 32.23% of studies involving international partnerships. Enrico Drioli stands out as the most influential contributor (56 articles, 3607 citations), while Italy led global research output (82 articles, 4067 citations). MCr is predominantly applied to the recovery of inorganic salts (e.g., NaCl, KCl, Na 2 SO 4 , MgSO 4 ), supporting brine valorization, industrial wastewater treatment, seawater processing, and zero liquid discharge strategies. Emerging applications include critical metal recovery, purification of pharmaceuticals and biomolecules such as proteins and biologics, and polymorph selection. Experimental studies dominate the field (184 articles), complemented by process-level modeling (46 articles) and mixed experimental–modeling investigations (40 articles), whereas publicly documented true pilot-scale MCr studies remain scarce. Among MCr technologies, Membrane Distillation Crystallization, Membrane Contactors for Gas-Liquid reactive crystallization, and Ion Exchange Membrane Crystallizers stand out as the most established approaches, while methods such as electrodialytic crystallization and membrane-assisted antisolvent crystallization are undergoing rapid development. These findings highlight the significant potential of MCr to advance sustainable water treatment, resource recovery, and circular economy strategies.