• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.476-481
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• 2016

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a quite new technique for power generation using an osmotically driven membrane process. In the PRO process, water permeates through a semipermeable membrane from a low concentration feed solution to a high concentration draw solution due to osmotic pressure. This study carried out to evaluate the performance of the 8 in spiral wound membrane module using reverse osmosis concentrate for a draw solution and reverse osmosis permeate for a feed solution. Three different flowrates of draw and feed solution, such as 2.4 L/min, 5.0 L/min, and 10.0 L/min were used to estimate the power density and water flux under various range of hydraulic pressure differences between 5 bar and 30 bar. In addition, the effects of feed and draw solution concentration, flowrate, and mixing ratio on 8 in spiral wound PRO membrane module performance were investigated in this study. As major results, increases of the draw solution concentration lead to the improvement of power denstiy, and water flux. Also, increase of flowrate resulted in the improvement of power density and water flux. In addition, optimal mixing ratio of draw and feed solution inlet flowrate was found to be 1:1 to attain a maximum power denstiy.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.321-325
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• 2016

The Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) is the next generation desalination technique and is considered as a eco-friendly energy. This was conducted to evaluate the effect of the temperature and pressure on the PRO performance. The flux of the permeation was measured under different operating conditions and estimated the power density. An improvement of PRO performance is depend on increasing solution temperature and optimum pressure. The effect of increasing feed solution temperature has stronger impact on the PRO performance comparing to the draw solution temperature. The reason of the results was due to the change of osmotic power, viscosity, water permeability and structure parameter(s).

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.271-278
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• 2016

Recently, reverse osmosis (RO) is the most common process for seawater desalination. A common problem in both RO and thermal processes is the high energy requirements for seawater desalination. The one energy saving method when utilizing the osmotic power is utilizing pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process. The PRO process can be used to operate hydro turbines for electrical power production or can be used directly to supplement the energy required for RO desalination system. This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of both single-stage PRO process and two-stage PRO process using RO concentrate for a draw solution and RO permeate for a feed solution. The major results, were found that increase of the draw and feed solution flowrate lead to increase of the production of power density and water permeate. Also, comparison between CDCF and CDDF configuration showed that the CDDF was better than CDCF for stable operation of PRO process. In addition, power density of two-stage PRO was lower than the one of single-stage. However, net power of two-stage PRO was higher than the one of single-stage PRO.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.317-322
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• 2015

Salinity gradient power is a system which sustainably generates electricity for 24 hrs, if the system is constructed at a certain place where both seawater and river water are consistently pumped. Since power is critically determined by the water flux and the salt rejection, a membrane of water-semipermeable aquaporin protein in cell membranes was studied for pressure-retarded osmosis. NaCl was used as a salt, and $NaNO_3$ was used as a candidate to check the ion selectivity. The water flux of biomimetic aquaporin membranes was negligible at a concentration below 2M. Also, there is no remarkable dependence of water flux and ion selectivity on concentrations higher than 3M. Therefore, the biomimetic aquaporin membrane could not be applied into pressure-retarded osmosis; however, if a membrane could overcome the current limitations, the properties shown by natural cells could be accomplished.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.425-431
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• 2013

This paper has studied the hydrophilizing effect of support on the performance of pressure retarded osmosis (PRO). The hydrophilicity of polyester support has been controlled with cellulose solutions. In order to investigate the effect of hydrophilizing of support, the performance test has been conducted with membrane which compose of active layer and support in absence of support layer. The active layer has been made by casting of cellulose tri-acetate (CTA) 1,4-dioxane solution (13 wt%) and combined with the hydrophilized support. The results show that water fluxes of PRO membranes with hydrophobic or hydrophilized support were measured $0.8L/m^2hr$ and $1.2L/m^2hr$ under $5kgf/cm^2$ pressure, respectively. However, water flux increase did not accord with hydrophilicity of supports treated by cellulose solutions. It is because the porosity and pore size of supports decrease as the cellulose concentration increases. This result confirms that both the hydrophilization of support and the maintenance of membrane porosity are important to enhance the performance of PRO membrane.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.60-65
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• 2015

This paper deals with performance characteristics and efficiencies of Pelton turbine can be applied as one of ERDs (Energy Recovery Devices) of PRO (Pressure Retarded Osmosis) system for desalination. The objective of this study is experimentally estimating the performance of micro-scale Pelton turbine for PRO pilot plant. Especially the performance characteristics with variations of jet nozzle diameter of Pelton turbine are discussed in detail. In order to do this, lab scale test rig of Pelton turbine was made for performance test, which includes water tank, Pelton wheel with buckets, jet nozzle and torque brake and so on. The parameter effects related on Pelton turbine's efficiency were investigated and discussed on the influence of the variations of load and speed ratio.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.553-559
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• 2016

There has been increasing global interest in the environmental pollution problems produced by fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In order to tackle these issues, new renewable energy such as solar, wind, bio gas, fuel cell and pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) have been developed extensively. Among these energy sources, PRO is one of the salinity gradient power generation methods. In PRO, energy is obtained by the osmotic pressure generated from the concentration difference between high and low concentration solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane. The development for high power density PRO membranes is imperative with the purpose of commercialization. This study investigates development of thin film composite PRO membrane and spiral wound module for high power density. Also, the influence of membrane backing layer on power density was identified, and the characteristic factors of PRO membranes was determined. Different backing layers were used to improve power density. As expected, the PRO membrane with more porous backing layer showed higher power density.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-34
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• 2021

Water supplies are decreasing in comparison to increasing clean water demands. Using nanofiltration is one of the most effective and economical methods to meet the need for clean water. Common methods for desalination are reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. However, pristine membranes lack the essential features which are, stability, economic efficiency, antibacterial and antifouling performances. To enhance the properties of the pristine membranes, graphene oxide (GO) is a promising and widely researched material for thin film composites (TFC) membrane due to their characteristics that help improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties. Modification of the membrane can be done on different layers. The thin film composite membranes are composed of three different layers, the top filtering active thin polyamide (PA) layer, supporting porous layer, and supporting fabric. Forward osmosis (FO) process is yet another energy efficient desalination process, but its efficiency is affected due to biofouling. Incorporation of GO enhance antibacterial properties leading to reduction of biofilm formation on the membrane surface. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is an excellent process to generate clean energy from sea water and the biofouling of membrane is reduced by introduction of GO into the active layer of the TFC membrane. Different modifications on the membranes are being researched, each modification with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this review, modifications of nanofiltration membranes and their composites, characterization, and performances are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 2017

Pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) has attracted much attention as potential technology to reduce the overall energy consumption for reverse osmosis(RO) desalination. The RO/PRO hybrid process is considered as the most logical next step for future desalination. The PRO process aims to harness the osmotic energy difference of two aqueous solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane. By using the concentrated water(RO brine) discharged from existing RO plants, the PRO process can effectively exploit a greater salinity gradient to reduce the energy cost of processing concentrated water. However, in order to use RO brine as the draw solution, PRO membrane must have high water flux and enough mechanical strength to withstand the high operational pressure. This study investigates the development of a thin film composite PRO membrane and spiral wound module for high power density. Also, the influence of membrane backing layer on the overall power density was studied using the characteristic factors of PRO membranes. Finally, the performance test of an 8-inch spiral wound module was carried out under various operating conditions(i.e. hydraulic pressure, flow rate, temperature). As the flow rate and temperature increased under the same hydraulic pressure, the PRO performance increased due to the growth of water permeability coefficient and osmotic pressure. For a high performance PRO system, in order to optimize the operating conditions, it is highly recommended that the flow pressure be minimized while the flow rate is maintained at a high level.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.456-470
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• 2013

Hollow-fiber membranes, is one of the new technologies that is growing rapidly in the past few decades. In addition, separation membranes using polymer materials, have attracted attentions in various fields including gas separation, fuel cells, water treatment, wastewater treatment, and organic separation. Nanofiltration (NF) membranes having the separation characteristics in the intermediate range between ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for liquid separation, with relatively low investment cost and operating pressure lower than that of RO membranes, have high permeance and rejection performance of multivalent ions as well as organic compounds of molecular weight between $200{\sim}1000gmol^{-1}$. In this paper, we would like to review the research trends on the various structure control and characterization of NF hollow fiber membranes with respect to materials and the methods of preparation (phase inversion method and interfacial polymerization method). Currently, most of NF membranes have been manufactured by plate and frame types or spiral wound types. But hollow fiber types have delayed in commercial products, because of the weak strength when to produce on the basis of the existing materials, therefore the development of new materials or improvement of existing materials will be needed. If improving manufacturing technology is available, hollow fiber types will replace spiral wound types and gradually show a higher market share.