• 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 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.

• 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 Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.436-447
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• 2004

Wetland plants have evolved specialized adaptations to survive in the low-oxygen conditions associated with prolonged flooding. The development of internal gas space by means of aerenchyma is crucial for wetland plants to transport $O_2$ from the atmosphere into the roots and rhizome. The formation of tissue with high porosity depends on the species and environmental condition, which can control the depth of root penetration and the duration of root tolerance in the flooded sediments. The oxygen in the internal gas space of plants can be delivered from the atmosphere to the root and rhizome by both passive molecular diffusion and convective throughflow. The release of $O_2$ from the roots supplies oxygen demand for root respiration, microbial respiration, and chemical oxidation processes and stimulates aerobic decomposition of organic matter. Another essential mechanism of wetland plants is downward water movement across the root zone induced by water uptake. Natural and constructed wetlands sediments have low hydraulic conductivity due to the relatively fine particle sizes in the litter layer and, therefore, negligible water movement. Under such condition, the water uptake by wetland plants creates a water potential difference in the rhizosphere which acts as a driving force to draw water and dissolved solutes into the sediments. A large number of anatomical, morphological and physiological studies have been conducted to investigate the specialized adaptations of wetland plants that enable them to tolerate water saturated environment and to support their biochemical activities. Despite this, there is little knowledge regarding how the combined effects of wetland plants influence the biogeochemistry of wetland sediments. A further investigation of how the Presence of plants and their growth cycle affects the biogeochemistry of sediments will be of particular importance to understand the role of wetland in the ecological environment.