• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.411-421
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• 2017

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging technology which can possibly make the desalination process more cost and energy efficient. One of the major factors impeding its growth is the lack of an appropriate draw solute. The present study deals with the identification of potential draw solutes, and rank them. The comparison was carried out among ten draw solutes on the basis of four main parameters namely; water flux, reverse salt diffusion, flux recovery and cost. Each draw solute was given three 24 hour runs; corresponding to three different concentrations; and their flux and reverse salt diffusion values were calculated. A fresh membrane was used every time except for the fourth time which was the flux recovery experiment conducted for the lowest concentration and the change of flux and reverse salt diffusion values from the initial run was noted. The organic solutes inspected were urea and tartaric acid which showed appreciable values in other parameters viz. reverse salt diffusion, flux recovery and cost although they generated a lower flux. They ranked 5th and 8th respectively. All the experimented draw solutes were ranked based on their values corresponding to each of the four main parameters chosen for comparison and Ammonium sulfate was found to be the best draw solute.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.63-72
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• 2022

Choline chloride-glycerol (1:2 mol), a natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) is examined as a draw solution in forward osmosis (FO) for dewatering application. The NADES is easy to prepare, low in toxicity and environmentally benign. A polyamide thin film composite membrane was used. Characterization of the membrane confirmed porous membrane structure with good hydrophilicity and a low structural parameter (722 ㎛) suitable for FO application. A dilute solution of 20% (v/v) NADES was enough to generate moderate water flux (14.98 L m^-2h^-1) with relatively low reverse solute flux (0.125 g m^-2h^-1) with deionized water feed. Application in dewatering industrial wastewater feed showed reasonably good water flux (11.9 L m^-2h^-1) which could be maintained by controlling the external concentration polarization and fouling/scaling mitigation via simple periodic deionized water wash. In another application, clarified sugarcane juice could be successfully concentrated. Recovery of the draw solute was accomplished easily by chilling utilizing thermo responsive phase transition property of NADES. This study established that low concentration NADES can be a viable alternative as a draw solute for dewatering of wastewater and other heat sensitive applications along with a simple recovery process.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 2019

An organic citrate series draw solute was synthesized using diethyl malonate for forward osmosis. The structure of the final compound potassium pentane-1,3,3,5-tetracarboxylate was confirmed by $^1H-NMR$ and $^{13}C-NMR$ analysis. Osmotic pressure, solubility, water permeability and reverse salt flux were measured for the properties of the draw solute. Forward osmosis results showed that the draw solute exhibited higher water flux than other draw solutes of trisodium citrate and tripotassium citrate. Reverse salt flux of all the organic daw solutes was much lower than that of NaCl. The osmotic pressure of the synthesized draw solute was 25% lower than that of NaCl. The solubility of the draw solute was 317 g/ 100 g water, which is 8.8 times higher than that of NaCl. A commercialized nanofiltration membrane was used for the recovery of the draw solute. The draw solute could be effectively recovered at low pressure.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.157-168
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• 2018

Potassium tannate (TA-K), which is prepared by base treatment of the bio-renewable tannic acid (TA), was evaluated for its potential application as a draw solute for water purification by forward osmosis. The forward osmosis and recovery properties of TA-K were systematically investigated. In the application of forward osmosis through the active layer facing feed solution (AL-FS) method, the water flux of TA-K draw solution was significantly higher than that of the TA draw solution, while that of the latter was not identified. At a low concentration of 100 mM, the osmotic pressure (1,135 mOsmol/kg) of the TA-K draw solution was approximately 6.5 times that (173 mOsmol/kg) of the NaCl draw solution. Furthermore, the water flux and specific salt flux (6.14 LMH, 1.26 g/L) of the TA-K draw solution at 100 mM were approximately 2.5 and 0.5 times those of the NaCl draw solution (2.46 LMH, 2.63 g/L) at the same concentration, respectively. For reuse, TA-K was precipitated by using a metal ion and recovered through membrane filtration. This study demonstrates the applicability of a phytochemical material as a draw solute for forward osmosis.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.240-244
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• 2013

Although forward osmosis desalination technology has drawn substantial attention as a next-generation desalination method, the energy efficiency of its draw solution treatment process should be improved for its commercialization. When ammonium bicarbonate is used as the draw solute, the system consists of forward-osmosis membrane modules, draw solution separation and recovery processes. Mixed gases of ammonia and carbon dioxide generated during the draws solution separation, need to be recovered to re-concentrate ammonium bicarbonate solution, for continuous operation as well as for the economic feasibility. The diluted ammonium bicarbonate solution has been proposed as the absorbent for the draw solution regeneration. In this study, experiments are conducted to investigate performance and features of the absorption corresponding to absorbent concentration. It is concluded that ammonium bicarbonate solution can be used to recover the generated ammonia and carbon dioxide. The results will be applied to design and operation of pilot-scale forward-osmosis desalination system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.535-543
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• 2002

Although the generic implementation of aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) processes for the recovery of biological products has been exploited for several years, this has not resulted in a wide adoption of the technique. The main reasons involve the poor understanding of the mechanism governing phase formation and the behavior of solute partitioning in ATPS processes, the cost of phase forming polymers, and the necessary extended time to optimize the technique. In this review paper, some of the practical disadvantages attributed to ATPS are addressed. The practical approach exploited to design ATPS processes, the application to achieve process integration, the extended use for the recovery of high-value products, and the recent development of new low-cost ATPS, are discussed. It is proposed that the trend of the practical application of ATPS processes for the recovery of biological products will involve the purification of new high-value bioparticulate products with medical applications. Such a trend will give new impetus to the technique, and will draw attention from industries needing to develop new, and improve existing, commercial processes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.357-361
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• 2018

Forward osmosis (FO) process has been attracting attention for its potential applications such as industrial wastewater treatment, wastewater reclamation and seawater desalination. Particularly, in terms of fouling reversibility and operating energy consumption, the FO process is assumed to be preferable to the reverse osmosis (RO) process. Despite these advantages, there is a difficulty in the empirical step due to the lack of separation and recovery techniques of the draw solution. Therefore, rather than using FO alone, recent developments of the FO process have adapted a hybrid system without draw solution separation/recovery systems, such as the FO-RO osmotic dilution system. In this study, we investigated the performance of the hollow fiber FO module according to various operating conditions. The change of permeate flow rate according to the flow rates of the draw and feed solutions in the process operation is a factor that increases the permeate flow rate, one of the performance factors in the positive osmosis process. Our results reveal that flow rates of draw and feed solutions affect the membrane performance, such as the water flux and the reverse solute flux. Moreover, use of hydraulic pressure on the feed side was shown to yield slightly higher flux than the case without applied pressure. Thus, optimizing the operating conditions is important in the hollow fiber FO system.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.132-143
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• 2015

Water is an essential resource for humans, but fresh water becomes scarce due to population growth and contamination of limited resources. Membrane technology has been widely used for water treatment, and forward osmosis is a process which does not need high hydraulic pressure for the operation. However, there are needs for (1) development of novel draw solutes causing low internal concentration polarization and reverse salt flux for high water flux, and (2) development of economic recovery method of the draw solutes in the diluted draw solution. Previous researches on the draw solute include $NaHCO_3$ which can be regenerated by about $60^{\circ}C$ heating, sucrose which can make potable water without additional process, and magnetic nanoparticles which can be regenerated by external magnetic field. Using the principles of forward osmosis process, sea water desalination, wastewater treatment, refinement of proteins, energy generation using pressure retarded osmosis process, preparation of diluted fertilizer, and growing algae for biofuel can be conducted. This paper summarizes characteristics of ideal draw solutes, recovery method of the draw solutes, and various application examples.