Performance evaluation of aquaporin forward osmosis membrane using chemical fertilizers as a draw solution

Abstract

The performance of a newly commercialized aquaporin (AQP)‐based biomimetic forward osmosis (FO) membrane was evaluated with several commonly used fertilizers ((CO (NH2)2, KCl, CaCl2, (NH4)2SO4 and (NH4)2HPO4) as a draw solutions (DSs) to verifying the possible implementation of this AQP‐FO membrane in the fertigation industry. Also, DS and feed solution (FS) concentrations were evaluated under FO and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) operation modes. The results showed that CaCl2 seems to be a more suitable DS in terms of the tradeoff between water flux and salt permeability, compared to the other DSs used in this study. However, KCl gained the highest performance in terms of water flux which was 13.9 and 24.1 Lm−2 h−1 in the FO and PRO mode, respectively. The performance of the AQP membrane in terms of water flux and reverse solute flux can be improved by modifying the structural and the membrane inhibitor layer characteristics for utilizing in commercial scales to compete with other available membranes of the FO process.

Second-Generation Magnesium Phosphates as Water Extractant Agents in Forward Osmosis and Subsequent Use in Hydroponics

“…Thus, such long filtration time was inherent to the setup design; from the industrial scale-up point of view, it may result in high membrane area requirements to achieve the proposed dilution in less time. Interestingly, very low reverse salt fluxes were observed from the DS to the FS (Figure 2d), much lower than in other studies with similar FO membranes [19,42]. These results indicate that most of the ions from the initial DS seemed to remain in the original solution and, thus, they were part of the nutrient solution usable in hydroponics.…”

Synthesis and characterization of PES/PSF/PEG by immersion precipitation for Mediterranean seawater desalination by FO membrane

“…A SRSF is defined as the ratio of RSF to the water flux passing through a membrane. [ 80 ] Lower J s / J w indicates higher efficiency of the membrane, that is, more water passes per unit of salt lost to reverse salt flux. [ 81 ] The J s / J w of blend membranes follows the order of PEG1.5 (0.028 g l −1 ) > PEG1 (0.021 g l −1 ) > PEG0.5 (0.014 g l −1 ).…”

Engineered osmosis – sustainable technology for water recovery, product concentration and energy generation

“…Ltd, Singapore) was evaluated as a FO membrane for FDFO using different draw solutes (urea, KCl, CaCl 2 , (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 and (NH 4 ) 2 HPO 4 ). 115 The CTA membranes displayed a ∼4 times increase in water flux (FSbrackish water) when DS (KCl) concentration increased from 0.5 M to 4 M. A high DS concentration, low flow rate (100 mL min −1 ) and FO orientation significantly lowered the specific energy consumption in the lab-scale study. The concentration polarization of the membranes is one of the main limiting factors that determine the membranes' reusability and longterm performance of the membranes.…”