Abstract
A new concept of volume-retarded osmosis and low-pressure membrane (VRO-LPM) hybrid process was developed and evaluated for the first time in this study. Commercially available forward osmosis (FO) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were employed in a VRO-LPM hybrid process to overcome energy limitations of draw solution (DS) regeneration and production of permeate in the FO process. To evaluate its feasibility as a water reclamation process, and to optimize the operational conditions, cross-flow FO and dead-end mode UF processes were individually evaluated. For the FO process, a DS concentration of 0.15 g mL−1 of polysulfonate styrene (PSS) was determined to be optimal, having a high flux with a low reverse salt flux. The UF membrane with a molecular weight cut-off of 1 kDa was chosen for its high PSS rejection in the LPM process. As a single process, UF (LPM) exhibited a higher flux than FO, but this could be controlled by adjusting the effective membrane area of the FO and UF membranes in the VRO-LPM system. The VRO-LPM hybrid process only required a circulation pump for the FO process. This led to a decrease in the specific energy consumption of the VRO-LPM process for potable water production, that was similar to the single FO process. Therefore, the newly developed VRO-LPM hybrid process, with an appropriate DS selection, can be used as an energy efficient water production method, and can outperform conventional water reclamation processes.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 76-84 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Chemosphere |
Volume | 194 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 15 2017 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2017R1A2B3009675), and the Korea Ministry of Environment as a “Global Top Project (2016002100006)”.