TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of volume-retarded osmosis and low-pressure membrane hybrid process for water reclamation
AU - Im, Sung-Ju
AU - Choi, Jungwon
AU - Lee, Jung Gil
AU - Jeong, Sanghyun
AU - Jang, Am
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: 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)”.
PY - 2017/11/15
Y1 - 2017/11/15
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/626195
UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653517318441
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85035800519&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.067
DO - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.067
M3 - Article
C2 - 29197818
SN - 0045-6535
VL - 194
SP - 76
EP - 84
JO - Chemosphere
JF - Chemosphere
ER -