Forward osmosis biomimetic membranes in industrial and environmental applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Henrik Tækker; Søgaard, Erik Gydesen; Bajraktari, Niada

Membrane processes have in recent years found increasing uses in several sectors where separation of one or more components from a solvent, typically water, is required. The most widespread types of membranes are polymeric and pressure driven, but the high pressures that are required results...... consumption and lead to much more stable operations, but is currently limited by the availability of suitable membranes. However, by introducing aquaporin protein channels into a polymeric membrane to make a biomimetic membrane, the vision of both high flux and separation efficiency may be achieved......) a single use filtration module containing a sample reservoir and a biomimetic aquaporin based forward osmosis membrane. 2) a multi-use desktop forward osmosis system containing draw solution mixing, and monitoring devices. The sample is placed in the single use module and the module is then mounted...

Testing of Synthetic Biological Membranes for Forward Osmosis Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Parodi, Jurek; Mangado, Jaione Romero; Stefanson, Ofir; Flynn, Michael; Mancinelli, Rocco; Kawashima, Brian; Trieu, Serena; Brozell, Adrian; Rosenberg, Kevan

2016-01-01

Commercially available forward osmosis membranes have been extensively tested for human space flight wastewater treatment. Despite the improvements achieved in the last decades, there is still a challenge to produce reliable membranes with anti-fouling properties, chemical resistance, and high flux and selectivity. Synthetic biological membranes that mimic the ones present in nature, which underwent millions of years of evolution, represent a potential solution for further development and progress in membrane technology. Biomimetic forward osmosis membranes based on a polymeric support filter and coated with surfactant multilayers have been engineered to investigate how different manufacturing processes impact the performance and structure of the membrane. However, initial results of the first generation prototype membranes tests reveal a high scatter in the data, due to the current testing apparatus set up. The testing apparatus has been upgraded to improve data collection, reduce errors, and to allow higher control of the testing process.

Application of reverse osmosis membrane for separation of toxic metal in water

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Syahril Ahmad

2010-01-01

Experimental separation of toxic metal in water has been done using reverse osmosis membrane made from composite material. Experiment was done by simulation in which metals that will be observed solved with water in different concentration and then used as feed solution in reverse osmosis process. Metals observed were Cr"6"+, Mn"2"+ and Pb"2"+ and reverse osmosis process was done at pressure of 40 Bar for all metals. Experiment result showed that value of feed solution concentration would affect flux and coefficient rejection of membrane. Composite membrane with polyacrylamide as active layer of membrane can reject metals observed with value of rejection coefficient more than 90%, except for Mn"2"+metal that have concentration 250 ppm and 500 ppm. (author)

Pressure retarded osmosis for energy production: membrane materials and operating conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, H; Choi, J-S; Lee, S

2012-01-01

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a novel membrane process to produce energy. PRO has the potential to convert the osmotic pressure difference between fresh water (i.e. river water) and seawater to electricity. Moreover, it can recover energy from highly concentrated brine in seawater desalination. Nevertheless, relatively little research has been undertaken for fundamental understanding of the PRO process. In this study, the characteristics of the PRO process were examined using a proof-of-concept device. Forward osmosis (FO), reverse osmosis (RO), and nanofiltration (NF) membranes were compared in terms of flux rate and concentration polarization ratio. The results indicated that the theoretical energy production by PRO depends on the membrane type as well as operating conditions (i.e. back pressure). The FO membrane had the highest energy efficiency while the NF membrane had the lowest efficiency. However, the energy production rate was low due to high internal concentration polarization (ICP) in the PRO membrane. This finding suggests that the control of the ICP is essential for practical application of PRO for energy production.

Enhanced Performance of Thin Film Composite Forward Osmosis Membrane by Chemical Post-Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zheng; Chen, Jiangrong; Cao, Zhen; Wang, Jian; Guo, Chungang

2018-01-01

Forward osmosis is an attractive technique in water purification and desalination fields. Enhancement of the forward osmosis membrane performance is essential to the application of this technique. In this study, an optimized chemical post-treatment approach which was used to improve RO membrane performance was employed for enhancing water flux of thin film composite forward osmosis membrane. Home-made polysulfide-based forward osmosis membrane was prepared and nitric acid, sulfuric acid, ethanol, 2-propanol were employed as post-treatment solutions. After a short-term treatment, all the membrane samples manifested water flux enhancement compared with their untreated counterparts. Over 50% increase of water flux had been obtained by ethanol solution treatment. The swelling, changes of hydrophobicity and solvency in both active layer and substrate were verified as the major causes for the enhancement of the water flux. It is noted that the treatment time and solution concentration should be controlled to get both appropriate water flux and reverse salt flux. The results obtained in this study will be useful for further FO membrane development and application.

Ion-containing reverse osmosis membranes obtained by radiation grafting method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hegazy, E.-S.A.; El-Assy, N.B.; Dessouki, A.M.; Shaker, M.M.

1989-01-01

Cationic membranes obtained by radiation grafting of aqueous acrylic acid onto low density polyethylene films followed by alkaline treatment to confer ionic character in the graft chains, were tested for reverse osmosis desalination of saline water. Selected physical properties of such membranes were investigated. The grafted membranes possess good mechanical and electrical properties. Water uptake for the alkali-treated membrane was much higher than that of the alkali-untreated one. The effect of operation time, degree of grafting, applied pressure and feed concentration on the water flux and salt rejection for the grafted membranes was investigated. Such cationic membranes showed good durability, thermal and chemical stability, acceptable water flux and salt rejection which may make them acceptable for practical use in reverse osmosis desalination of sea water. (author)

Rejection of micropollutants by clean and fouled forward osmosis membrane

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo

2011-12-01

As forward osmosis (FO) gains attention as an efficient technology to improve wastewater reclamation processes, it is fundamental to determine the influence of fouling in the rejection of emerging contaminants (micropollutants). This study focuses on the rejection of 13 selected micropollutants, spiked in a secondary wastewater effluent, by a FO membrane, using Red Sea water as draw solution (DS), differentiating the effects on the rejection caused by a clean and fouled membrane. The resulting effluent was then desalinated at low pressure with a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, to produce a high quality permeate and determine the rejection with a coupled forward osmosis - low pressure reverse osmosis (FO-LPRO) system. When considering only FO with a clean membrane, the rejection of the hydrophilic neutral compounds was between 48.6% and 84.7%, for the hydrophobic neutrals the rejection ranged from 40.0% to 87.5%, and for the ionic compounds the rejections were between 92.9% and 96.5%. With a fouled membrane, the rejections were between 44.6% and 95.2%, 48.7%-91.5% and 96.9%-98.6%, respectively. These results suggest that, except for the hydrophilic neutral compounds, the rejection of the micropollutants is increased by the presence of a fouling layer, possibly due to the higher hydrophilicity of the FO fouled membrane compared to the clean one, the increased adsorption capacity of hydrophilic compounds and reduced mass transport capacity, membrane swelling, and the higher negative charge of the membrane surface, related to the foulants composition, mainly NOM acids (carboxylic radicals) and polysaccharides or polysaccharide-like substances. However, when coupled with RO, the rejections in both cases increased above 96%. The coupled FO-LPRO system was an effective double barrier against the selected micropollutants. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Rejection of micropollutants by clean and fouled forward osmosis membrane

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Yangali-Quintanilla, Victor; Li, Zhenyu; Amy, Gary L.

2011-01-01

As forward osmosis (FO) gains attention as an efficient technology to improve wastewater reclamation processes, it is fundamental to determine the influence of fouling in the rejection of emerging contaminants (micropollutants). This study focuses on the rejection of 13 selected micropollutants, spiked in a secondary wastewater effluent, by a FO membrane, using Red Sea water as draw solution (DS), differentiating the effects on the rejection caused by a clean and fouled membrane. The resulting effluent was then desalinated at low pressure with a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, to produce a high quality permeate and determine the rejection with a coupled forward osmosis - low pressure reverse osmosis (FO-LPRO) system. When considering only FO with a clean membrane, the rejection of the hydrophilic neutral compounds was between 48.6% and 84.7%, for the hydrophobic neutrals the rejection ranged from 40.0% to 87.5%, and for the ionic compounds the rejections were between 92.9% and 96.5%. With a fouled membrane, the rejections were between 44.6% and 95.2%, 48.7%-91.5% and 96.9%-98.6%, respectively. These results suggest that, except for the hydrophilic neutral compounds, the rejection of the micropollutants is increased by the presence of a fouling layer, possibly due to the higher hydrophilicity of the FO fouled membrane compared to the clean one, the increased adsorption capacity of hydrophilic compounds and reduced mass transport capacity, membrane swelling, and the higher negative charge of the membrane surface, related to the foulants composition, mainly NOM acids (carboxylic radicals) and polysaccharides or polysaccharide-like substances. However, when coupled with RO, the rejections in both cases increased above 96%. The coupled FO-LPRO system was an effective double barrier against the selected micropollutants. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Double-Skinned Forward Osmosis Membranes for Reducing Internal Concentration Polarization within the Porous Sublayer

KAUST Repository

Wang, Kai Yu

2010-05-19

A scheme to fabricate forward osmosis membranes comprising a highly porous sublayer sandwiched between two selective skin layers via phase inversion was proposed. One severe deficiency of existing composite and asymmetric membranes used in forward osmosis is the presence of unfavorable internal concentration polarization within the porous support layer that hinders both (i) separation (salt flux) and (ii) the performance (water flux). The double skin layers of the tailored membrane may mitigate the internal concentration polarization by preventing the salt and other solutes in the draw solution from penetrating into the membrane porous support. The prototype double-skinned cellulose acetate membrane displayed a water flux of 48.2 L·m-2·h -1 and lower reverse salt transport of 6.5 g·m -2·h-1 using 5.0 M MgCl2 as the draw solution in a forward osmosis process performed at 22 °C. This can be attributed to the effective salt rejection by the double skin layers and the low water transport resistance within the porous support layer. The prospects of utilizing the double-selective layer membranes may have potential application in forward osmosis for desalination. This study may help pave the way to improve the membrane design for the forward osmosis process. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Double-Skinned Forward Osmosis Membranes for Reducing Internal Concentration Polarization within the Porous Sublayer

KAUST Repository

Wang, Kai Yu; Ong, Rui Chin; Chung, Tai-Shung

2010-01-01

A scheme to fabricate forward osmosis membranes comprising a highly porous sublayer sandwiched between two selective skin layers via phase inversion was proposed. One severe deficiency of existing composite and asymmetric membranes used in forward osmosis is the presence of unfavorable internal concentration polarization within the porous support layer that hinders both (i) separation (salt flux) and (ii) the performance (water flux). The double skin layers of the tailored membrane may mitigate the internal concentration polarization by preventing the salt and other solutes in the draw solution from penetrating into the membrane porous support. The prototype double-skinned cellulose acetate membrane displayed a water flux of 48.2 L·m-2·h -1 and lower reverse salt transport of 6.5 g·m -2·h-1 using 5.0 M MgCl2 as the draw solution in a forward osmosis process performed at 22 °C. This can be attributed to the effective salt rejection by the double skin layers and the low water transport resistance within the porous support layer. The prospects of utilizing the double-selective layer membranes may have potential application in forward osmosis for desalination. This study may help pave the way to improve the membrane design for the forward osmosis process. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Forward osmosis biomimetic membranes in industrial and environmental applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bajraktari, Niada; Madsen, Henrik Tækker; Nielsen, K. H.

consumption and lead to much more stable operations, but is currently limited by the availability of suitable membranes. However, by introducing aquaporin protein channels into a polymeric membrane to make a biomimetic membrane, the vision of both high flux and separation efficiency may be achieved......) a single use filtration module containing a sample reservoir and a biomimetic aquaporin based forward osmosis membrane. 2) a multi-use desktop forward osmosis system containing draw solution mixing, and monitoring devices. The sample is placed in the single use module and the module is then mounted...... a simple unit operation based on osmotic extraction of water from dilute peptide samples with no – or very little loss of sample material. A big challenge in modern water treatment is the handling of micropollutants. One example of these is the pollution of ground-/drinking water with pesticides, which...

Application of positron annihilation technique to reverse osmosis membrane materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimazu, A.; Ikeda, K.; Miyazaki, T.; Ito, Y.

2000-01-01

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy has been adopted as a new approach for studying vacancies of reverse osmosis membrane materials composed of cellulose acetate films and aromatic polyamide resins. The intensity of the ortho-positronium (o-Ps) lifetime increased with the amount of vacancies determined using N 2 isotherm at -195 deg. C. Changes of vacancy profiles induced by heat treatment in the cellulose acetate films were detected using o-Ps. It was found that the positron annihilation technique is applicable to the study of vacancy profiles associated with salt selectivity in typical reverse osmosis membranes.

Separation of Peptides with Forward Osmosis Biomimetic Membranes

OpenAIRE

Bajraktari, Niada; Madsen, Henrik T.; Gruber, Mathias F.; Truelsen, Sigurd; Jensen, Elzbieta L.; Jensen, Henrik; H?lix-Nielsen, Claus

2016-01-01

Forward osmosis (FO) membranes have gained interest in several disciplines for the rejection and concentration of various molecules. One application area for FO membranes that is becoming increasingly popular is the use of the membranes to concentrate or dilute high value compound solutions such as pharmaceuticals. It is crucial in such settings to control the transport over the membrane to avoid losses of valuable compounds, but little is known about the rejection and transport mechanisms of...

High solute rejecting membranes for reverse osmosis: Polyetheramide hydrazide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bindal, R.C.; Ramachandhran, V.; Misra, B.M.; Ramani, M.P.S.

1991-01-01

Synthesis of benzhydrazide polymers and determination of reverse osmosis properties of their membranes were reported earlier. Their performance was not adequate for seawater desalination or for high radioactive decontamination factors (DF). The same hydrazide polymers modified by incorporation of additional monomers with ether linkages were synthesized by low temperature polycondensation of freshly prepared m-amino benzhydrazide, p-amino benzhydrazide, and 4,4'-diamino diphenyl ether, with isophthaloyl chloride and terephthaloyl chloride in dimethyl acetamide solvent. A series of film-forming polymers prepared by altering the molar ratios of the reacting monomers were characterized in terms of percent moisture regain, inherent viscosity, solubility parameters, and interfacial sorption characteristics. Asymmetric membranes prepared from these polymer samples were characterized in terms of the pure water permeability constant and the solute transport parameter, and were tested for their reverse osmosis performance. An optimum mole ratio of reaching monomers has been identified for the synthesis of polymer and the resulting membrane offered the best performance for reverse osmosis (salt rejection as high as 99.4% for 3.5% sodium chloride solution). The incorporation of aromatic ether linkages in the polyamide benzhydrazide polymeric chains appears to alter the polar and nonpolar character of the bulk polymer, and also the membrane solution interface characteristics, resulting in enhanced solute separation. These membranes appear to be potential candidates for single-stage seawater desalination and also for a variety of industrial effluent treatment applications for significantly high DF radioactive effluent treatment

Chemical treatment of commercial reverse osmosis membranes for use in FO

Science.gov (United States)

Commercially available reverse osmosis (RO) membranes – SW30HR, BW30, and AG – were chemically treated for use in forward osmosis (FO). Nitric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, ethanol, and ethanol–acid–water ternary solutions were employed for the treatment. All three membra...

Calculation of separation selectivity of aqueous electrolytic solutions with reverse osmosis membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ognevskij, A.V.; Fomichev, S.V.; Khvostov, V.F.; Kochergin, N.V.; AN SSSR, Moscow

1988-01-01

Viscosity and dielectric permittivity of a bound water layer in micropores of cellulose acetate membranes used for electrolyte ion separation by reverse osmosis method are calculated using the water cluster model and the proposed structural temperature parameter. Based on the model representations presented an algorithmof reverse osmosis membrane selectivity calculation in diluted aqueous solutions ofelectrolytes containing Cs + , Sr 2+ , I - and other ions is constructed

Preparation and selected properties of ion-containing reverse osmosis membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hegazy, E.S.A.; Dessouki, A.M.

1986-01-01

Ion-containing reverse osmosis membranes were prepared by the post radiation grafting of 4-vinylpyridine onto low density polyethylene films, followed by quaternization of the pyridine rings in the graft chains to confer ionic character to the membranes. The effect of some preparation conditions on the grafting yield was investigated. Different quaternizing agents such as methyl iodide, allyl bromide, and hydrochloric acid were used for the quaternization of the graft chains. The effect of quaternizing agent and degree of grafting on the properties of the membranes such as swelling behaviour, specific electric resistance, water flux and salt rejection, was investigated. The properties of these ionic membranes did not deteriorate with the operation time and they show a great promise for the use in the field of reverse osmosis desalination of sea water. (author)

A comparison of ROChem reverse osmosis and spiral wound reverse osmosis membrane modules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siler, J.L.

1992-01-01

Testing of the ROChem Disc Tube reg-sign reverse osmosis (RO) module's performance on biologically active feed waters has been completed. Both the ROChem module (using Filmtec standard-rejection seawater membranes) and the Filmtec spiral-wound membrane module (using Filmtec high-rejection seawater membranes) were tested with stimulant solutions containing typical bacteria and metal hydroxide levels found in the F/H Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF) influent. Results indicate that the ROChem module gave superior performance over the spiral-wound module. Water flux losses were reduced by over 30% for water recoveries above 40%

Predicting flux decline of reverse osmosis membranes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schippers, J.C.; Hanemaayer, J.H.; Smolders, C.A.; Kostense, A.

1981-01-01

A mathematical model predicting flux decline of reverse osmosis membranes due to colloidal fouling has been verified. This mathema- tical model is based on the theory of cake or gel filtration and the Modified Fouling Index (MFI). Research was conducted using artificial colloidal solutions and a

Superhydrophilic Thin-Film Composite Forward Osmosis Membranes for Organic Fouling Control: Fouling Behavior and Antifouling Mechanisms

KAUST Repository

Tiraferri, Alberto

2012-10-16

This study investigates the fouling behavior and fouling resistance of superhydrophilic thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes functionalized with surface-tailored nanoparticles. Fouling experiments in both forward osmosis and reverse osmosis modes are performed with three model organic foulants: alginate, bovine serum albumin, and Suwannee river natural organic matter. A solution comprising monovalent and divalent salts is employed to simulate the solution chemistry of typical wastewater effluents. Reduced fouling is consistently observed for the superhydrophilic membranes compared to control thin-film composite polyamide membranes, in both reverse and forward osmosis modes. The fouling resistance and cleaning efficiency of the functionalized membranes is particularly outstanding in forward osmosis mode where the driving force for water flux is an osmotic pressure difference. To understand the mechanism of fouling, the intermolecular interactions between the foulants and the membrane surface are analyzed by direct force measurement using atomic force microscopy. Lower adhesion forces are observed for the superhydrophilic membranes compared to the control thin-film composite polyamide membranes. The magnitude and distribution of adhesion forces for the different membrane surfaces suggest that the antifouling properties of the superhydrophilic membranes originate from the barrier provided by the tightly bound hydration layer at their surface, as well as from the neutralization of the native carboxyl groups of thin-film composite polyamide membranes. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

Superhydrophilic thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes for organic fouling control: fouling behavior and antifouling mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Tiraferri, Alberto; Kang, Yan; Giannelis, Emmanuel P; Elimelech, Menachem

2012-10-16

This study investigates the fouling behavior and fouling resistance of superhydrophilic thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes functionalized with surface-tailored nanoparticles. Fouling experiments in both forward osmosis and reverse osmosis modes are performed with three model organic foulants: alginate, bovine serum albumin, and Suwannee river natural organic matter. A solution comprising monovalent and divalent salts is employed to simulate the solution chemistry of typical wastewater effluents. Reduced fouling is consistently observed for the superhydrophilic membranes compared to control thin-film composite polyamide membranes, in both reverse and forward osmosis modes. The fouling resistance and cleaning efficiency of the functionalized membranes is particularly outstanding in forward osmosis mode where the driving force for water flux is an osmotic pressure difference. To understand the mechanism of fouling, the intermolecular interactions between the foulants and the membrane surface are analyzed by direct force measurement using atomic force microscopy. Lower adhesion forces are observed for the superhydrophilic membranes compared to the control thin-film composite polyamide membranes. The magnitude and distribution of adhesion forces for the different membrane surfaces suggest that the antifouling properties of the superhydrophilic membranes originate from the barrier provided by the tightly bound hydration layer at their surface, as well as from the neutralization of the native carboxyl groups of thin-film composite polyamide membranes.

Discussion on cleaning and maintenance of YA system reverse osmosis membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Yidong

2012-01-01

According to the overproof of pollution data of YA system reverse osmosis membrane in extension project, the daily maintenance company is using chemical cleaning on reverse osmosis unit to eliminate the pollution blindly, the fixed prescription, fixed dosage and high frequency of the chemical cleaning. The writer analyzed the cause of the membrane pollution and commended several chemical cleaning methods by the long-period study of the system, and also some suggestion, according to the status of operational site, for the daily maintenance. (author)

Forward osmosis membrane fouling and cleaning for wastewater reuse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youngbeom Yu

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Membrane fouling properties and different physical cleaning methods for forward osmosis (FO and reverse osmosis (RO laboratory-scale filtration systems were investigated. The membrane fouling, with respect to flux reduction, was lower in FO than in RO when testing an activated sludge effluent. Cross-flow velocity, air-scouring, osmotic backwashing and effect of a spacer were compared to determine the most effective cleaning method for FO. After a long period of fouling with activated sludge, the flux was fully recovered in a short period of osmotic backwashing compared with cleaning by changing cross-flow velocity and air-scouring. In this study, the osmotic backwashing was found to be the most efficient way to clean the FO membrane. The amount of RNA recovered from FO membranes was about twice that for RO membranes; biofouling could be more significant in FO than in RO. However, the membrane fouling in FO was lower than that in RO. The spacer increased the flux in FO with activated sludge liquor suspended solids of 2,500 mg/L, and there were effects of spacer on performance of FO–MBR membrane fouling. However, further studies are required to determine how the spacer geometry influences on the performance of the FO membrane.

Hydrophilic, bactericidal nanoheater-enabled reverse osmosis membranes to improve fouling resistance.

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Jessica R; Tadepalli, Sirimuvva; Nergiz, Saide Z; Liu, Keng-Ku; You, Le; Tang, Yinjie; Singamaneni, Srikanth; Jun, Young-Shin

2015-06-03

Polyamide (PA) semipermeable membranes typically used for reverse osmosis water treatment processes are prone to fouling, which reduces the amount and quality of water produced. By synergistically coupling the photothermal and bactericidal properties of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, gold nanostars (AuNS), and hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) on PA reverse osmosis membrane surfaces, we have dramatically improved fouling resistance of these membranes. Batch fouling experiments from three classes of fouling are presented: mineral scaling (CaCO3 and CaSO4), organic fouling (humic acid), and biofouling (Escherichia coli). Systematic analyses and a variety of complementary techniques were used to elucidate fouling resistance mechanisms from each layer of modification on the membrane surface. Both mineral scaling and organic fouling were significantly reduced in PA-GO-AuNS-PEG membranes compared to other membranes. The PA-GO-AuNS-PEG membrane was also effective in killing all near-surface bacteria compared to PA membranes. In the PA-GO-AuNS-PEG membrane, the GO nanosheets act as templates for in situ AuNS growth, which then facilitated localized heating upon irradiation by an 808 nm laser inactivating bacteria on the membrane surface. Furthermore, AuNS in the membrane assisted PEG in preventing mineral scaling on the membrane surface. In flow-through flux and foulant rejection tests, PA-GO-AuNS-PEG membranes performed better than PA membranes in the presence of CaSO4 and humic acid model foulants. Therefore, the newly suggested membrane surface modifications will not only reduce fouling from RO feeds, but can improve overall membrane performance. Our innovative membrane design reported in this study can significantly extend the lifetime and water treatment efficacy of reverse osmosis membranes to alleviate escalating global water shortage from rising energy demands.

Flux patterns and membrane fouling propensity during desalination of seawater by forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Li, Zhenyu; Yangali-Quintanilla, Victor; Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Li, Qingyu; Zhan, Tong; Amy, Gary L.

2012-01-01

The membrane fouling propensity of natural seawater during forward osmosis was studied. Seawater from the Red Sea was used as the feed in a forward osmosis process while a 2. M sodium chloride solution was used as the draw solution. The process was conducted in a semi-batch mode under two crossflow velocities, 16.7. cm/s and 4.2. cm/s. For the first time reported, silica scaling was found to be the dominant inorganic fouling (scaling) on the surface of membrane active layer during seawater forward osmosis. Polymerization of dissolved silica was the major mechanism for the formation of silica scaling. After ten batches of seawater forward osmosis, the membrane surface was covered by a fouling layer of assorted polymerized silica clusters and natural organic matter, especially biopolymers. Moreover, the absorbed biopolymers also provided bacterial attachment sites. The accumulated organic fouling could be partially removed by water flushing while the polymerized silica was difficult to remove. The rate of flux decline was about 53% with a crossflow velocity of 16.7. cm/s while reaching more than 70% with a crossflow velocity of 4.2. cm/s. Both concentration polarization and fouling played roles in the decrease of flux. The salt rejection was stable at about 98% during seawater forward osmosis. In addition, an almost complete rejection of natural organic matter was attained. The results from this study are valuable for the design and development of a successful protocol for a pretreatment process before seawater forward osmosis and a cleaning method for fouled membranes. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Biofouling behavior and performance of forward osmosis membranes with bioinspired surface modification in osmotic membrane bioreactor.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Fang; Cheng, Qianxun; Tian, Qing; Yang, Bo; Chen, Qianyuan

2016-07-01

Forward osmosis (FO) has received considerable interest for water and energy related applications in recent years. Biofouling behavior and performance of cellulose triacetate (CTA) forward osmosis membranes with bioinspired surface modification via polydopamine (PD) coating and poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) grafting (PD-g-PEG) in a submerged osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) were investigated in this work. The modified membranes exhibited lower flux decline than the pristine one in OMBR, confirming that the bioinspired surface modification improved the antifouling ability of the CTA FO membrane. The result showed that the decline of membrane flux related to the increase of the salinity and MLSS concentration of the mixed liquid. It was concluded that the antifouling ability of modified membranes ascribed to the change of surface morphology in addition to the improvement of membrane hydrophilicity. The bioinspired surface modifications might improve the anti-adhesion for the biopolymers and biocake. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Poly/vinyl alcohol/ membranes for reverse osmosis

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, M. G.; Wydeven, T., Jr.

1981-01-01

A description is presented of the results of studies of the water and salt transport properties of PVA membranes, taking into account radiation crosslinked PVA membranes, diffusive salt permeability through PVA membranes, and heat treated PVA membranes. The experimental findings support an occurrence of independent water, and salt permeation processes. It is suggested that the salt permeation is governed by a solution-diffusion transport mechanism. The preparation of thin skinned, asymmetric PVA membranes is also discussed. The employed method has a certain similarity to the classical phase inversion method, which is widely applied in the casting of asymmetric reverse osmosis membranes. Instead of using a gelling bath composed of a nonsolvent for the membrane material and miscible with the solvent from which the membrane is cast, a 'complexing' bath is used, which is a solution of a complexing agent in water.

Removal of radionuclides by reverse osmosis using a cellulose acetate membrane, (2)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishimaki, Kenzo; Koyama, Akio; Saji, Minoru; Tutui, Tenson.

1990-01-01

Experiments were performed on the removal of radionuclides from radioactive liquid waste by reverse osmosis using asymmetric cellulose acetate membranes. In previous papers, we reported such removal properties as the dependence on solute concentration and the influence of co-existing material. In this paper we performed experiments on some separation properties, especially on the formation and the disappearance of concentration polarization layer of membrane surface. These experiments are necessary for the theoretical explanation of findings shown in previous papers. Concentration polarization layer is formed on the surface of the membrane, when pressurized feed solution is not stirred during reverse osmosis operation. This layer grows with elapsed time and reaches the equilibrium. The thickness of this concentration polarization layer and solute concentrations in this layer are calculated by a simple model. The formation and disappearance of this layer are experimented with intermittent stirring. The influence of intensity of stirring on the formation of concentration polarization layer is observed. These are important information on property of membrane for removing solute by reverse osmosis. (author)

Improvement of water desalination technologies in reverse osmosis plants

Science.gov (United States)

Vysotskii, S. P.; Konoval'chik, M. V.; Gul'ko, S. E.

2017-07-01

The strengthening of requirements for the protection of surface-water sources and increases in the cost of reagents lead to the necessity of using membrane (especially, reverse osmosis) technologies of water desalination as an alternative to ion-exchange technologies. The peculiarities of using reverse osmosis technologies in the desalination of waters with an increased salinity have been discussed. An analogy has been made between the dependence of the adsorptive capacity of ion-exchange resins on the reagent consumption during ion exchange and the dependence of the specific ion flux on the voltage in the electrodialysis and productivity of membrane elements on the excess of the pressure of source water over the osmotic pressure in reverse osmosis. It has been proposed to regulate the number of water desalination steps in reverse osmosis plants, which makes it possible to flexibly change the productivity of equipment and the level of desalinization, depending on the requirements for the technological process. It is shown that the selectivity of reverse osmotic membranes with respect to bivalent ions (calcium, magnesium, and sulfates) is approximately four times higher than the selectivity with respect to monovalent ions (sodium and chlorine). The process of desalination in reverse osmosis plants depends on operation factors, such as the salt content and ion composition of source water, the salt content of the concentrate, and the temperatures of solution and operating pressure, and the design features of devices, such as the length of the motion of the desalination water flux, the distance between membranes, and types of membranes and turbulators (spacers). To assess the influence of separate parameters on the process of reverse osmosis desalination of water solutions, we derived criteria equations by compiling problem solution matrices on the basis of the dimensional method, taking into account the Huntley complement. The operation of membrane elements was

Effects of transmembrane hydraulic pressure on performance of forward osmosis membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Coday, Bryan D; Heil, Dean M; Xu, Pei; Cath, Tzahi Y

2013-03-05

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging membrane separation process that continues to be tested and implemented in various industrial water and wastewater treatment applications. The growing interests in the technology have prompted laboratories and manufacturers to adopt standard testing methods to ensure accurate comparison of membrane performance under laboratory-controlled conditions; however, standardized methods might not capture specific operating conditions unique to industrial applications. Experiments with cellulose triacetate (CTA) and polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) FO membranes demonstrated that hydraulic transmembrane pressure (TMP), common in industrial operation of FO membrane elements, could affect membrane performance. Experiments were conducted with three FO membranes and with increasing TMP up to a maximum of 50 psi (3.45 bar). The feed solution was a mixture of salts and the draw solution was either a NaCl solution or concentrated seawater at similar osmotic pressure. Results revealed that TMP minimally affected water flux, reverse salt flux (RSF), and solute rejection of the CTA membrane. However, water flux through TFC membranes might slightly increase with increasing TMP, and RSF substantially declines with increasing TMP. It was observed that rejection of feed constituents was influenced by TMP and RSF.

Forward osmosis - a novel membrane process for concentration of low level radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghosh, A.K.; Bindal, R.C.; Tewari, P.K.

2013-01-01

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging membrane process in which osmotic pressure differential across a semi-permeable membrane between the solution to be concentrated (feed) and a concentrated solution of high osmotic pressure (draw solution) than the feed is used to effect separation of water from dissolved solutes. With time, feed stream gets concentrated with dilution of draw solution and this technology recently being used as more energy efficient alternative to reverse osmosis (RO) in some of the application areas, particularly for the concentration of low volume high value products. The use of pressure driven membrane processes like reverse osmosis (RO) and ultrafiltration (UF) are already demonstrated in the treatment of radioactive laundry, laboratory effluents and some other applications in nuclear industry. The application of FO membrane process to concentrate simulated inactive ammonium-diuranate (ADU) filtered effluent solution (by mixing uranyl nitrate and ammonium nitrate) using indigenously developed cellulose acetate (CA) and thin-film composite polyamide (TFCP) membranes has been published recently from our laboratory. In this presentation, we briefly discuss our views on possibility of using FO membrane process with proper selection of membrane for concentration of low level radioactive wastes generated in various steps of nuclear fuel cycle in most effective way. (author)

Expansion of thermodynamic model of solute permeation through reverse osmosis membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishimaki, Kenzo; Koyama, Akio

1994-01-01

Many studies have been performed on permeation mechanism of solute and solvent in membrane separation process like reverse osmosis or ultrafiltration, and several models of solute/solvent permeation through membrane are proposed. Among these models, Kedem and Katchalsky, based on the theory of thermodynamics of irreversible processes, formulated the one-solute permeation process in their mathematical model, which treats membrane as a black box, not giving consideration to membrane structure and to interaction between membrane material and permeates, viz. solute and solvent. According to this theory, the driving force of solute/solvent permeation through membrane is the difference of their chemical potential between both sides of membrane, and the linear phenomenological equation is applied to describing the relation between driving force and flux of solute/solvent. This equation can be applied to the irreversible process only when the process is almost in equilibrium. This condition is supposed to be satisfied in the solute/solvent permeation process through compact membrane with fine pores like reverse osmosis membrane. When reverse osmosis is applied to treatment process for liquid waste, which usually contains a lot of solutes as contaminants, we can not predict the behavior of contaminants by the above one-solute process model. In the case of multi-solutes permeation process for liquid waste, the number of parameter in thermodynamic model increases rapidly with the number of solute, because of coupling phenomenon among solutes. In this study, we expanded the above thermodynamic model to multi-solute process applying operational calculus to the differential equations which describe the irreversible process of the system, and expressed concisely solute concentration vector as a matrix product. In this way, we predict the behavior of solutes in multi-solutes process, using values of parameters obtained in two-solutes process. (author)

The treatment of radioactive waste with reverse osmosis membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hendro

1997-01-01

The study of liquid waste characteristic and performance of reverse osmosis for treatment of liquid radioactive waste had been taken. Waste simulation was used to contain of 100 ppm strontium, 100 ppm cesium, pH between 5 and 6, and dry extract of 0.11 g/l, with operating condition of feed solution pressure 100 psi, temperature 25 o C, spiral wound composite membrane modules and area of membrane was 0,3042 m 2 . Results of the experiment indicated that the decontamination factor obtained between 9.3 and 15.4 for strontium, and 7,3 and 7,9 for cesium. From the beginning until one hour of operation decontamination factor increased to 53,8% for strontium and 4,1% for cesium, and permeate flux decreased at operating time more than 12 hours. Decontamination factor of process can be increased by using the series of osmosis unit (author)

REMOVAL OF CHLORINATED ALKENE SOLVENTS FROM DRINKING WATER BY VARIOUS REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANES

Science.gov (United States)

Historically, membranes have been used to desalinate water. As new membrane materials are developed, traditional water treatment schemes may incorporate membrane technologies, such as reverse osmosis, to address a variety of new concerns such as low molecular weight volatile org...

Optimisation of the cleaning sequence for reverse osmosis membranes; Optimizacion de secuencias de lavado de membranas de osmosis inversa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hassani Zerrouk, M.; Quiroga Alonso, J. M.; Lopez Ramirez, J. A.

2005-07-01

Membranes used in water treatment lose performance along the time, in according to membrane kind, feed water characteristics and operating conditions. Fouling is the most important issue associated to membrane technology and for minimising it is necessary to clean membranes correctly. The main goal of this paper is to describe procedures and products that allow effective cleaning of reverse osmosis membranes, used to treat secondary effluents from activated sludges, which lead to a decrease in plant exploitation costs. (Author) 9 refs.

Hybrid membrane system for desalination and wastewater treatment : Integrating forward osmosis and low pressure reverse osmosis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Valladares Linares, R.

2014-01-01

Since more than 97% of the water in the world is seawater, desalination technologies have the potential to solve the fresh water crisis. The most used desalination technology nowadays is seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), where a membrane is used as a physical barrier to separate the salts from the

A survey of structure characterization methods for ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smolders, C.A.; Mulder, M.H.V.; van der Velden, P.M.

1976-01-01

Asymmetric membranes consist of a thin skin, which is permselective to certain molecules in solution, and a porous support, serving as a mechanical support layer and also as a transport layer for the permeate. Both in ultrafiltration and in hyperfiltration (reverse osmosis) asymmetric membranes are

Membrane fouling of forward osmosis (FO) membrane for municipal wastewater treatment: A comparison between direct FO and OMBR.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yan; Tian, Jiayu; Zhao, Zhiwei; Shi, Wenxin; Liu, Dongmei; Cui, Fuyi

2016-11-01

In this work, membrane fouling behavior in a direct forward osmosis (FO) and an osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) for municipal wastewater treatment was systematically investigated and compared. During the long-term operation, much severer flux decline was observed for the direct FO than that for the OMBR. The cake layer was found to be much thicker, together with large amounts of microorganisms growing on the membrane surface in direct FO. Interestingly, no obvious attachment of microorganisms on the membrane surface was observed in the OMBR. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and excitation emission matrices (EEM) analyses showed the polysaccharides and proteins were the dominant organic foulants in the fouling layer, and the quantity of the organic substances was also higher in direct FO than that in OMBR. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) results indicated the main inorganic elements in the fouling layer were Ca, Mg, Fe and P, all of which exhibited higher relative percentages in direct FO than that in OMBR. The occurrence of higher contents of microorganisms, organic foulants and inorganic elements in the cake layer caused a higher filtration resistance for the FO membrane in the direct FO. Although more severe membrane fouling was identified in direct FO, the hydraulic and chemical cleaning was more effective on recovering the water permeability of the membrane in direct FO than that in OMBR. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impacts of zeolite nanoparticles on substrate properties of thin film nanocomposite membranes for engineered osmosis

Science.gov (United States)

Salehi, Tahereh Mombeini; Peyravi, Majid; Jahanshahi, Mohsen; Lau, Woei-Jye; Rad, Ali Shokuhi

2018-04-01

In this work, microporous substrates modified by zeolite nanoparticles were prepared and used for composite membrane making with the aim of reducing internal concentration polarization (ICP) effect of membranes during engineered osmosis applications. Nanocomposite substrates were fabricated via phase inversion technique by embedding nanostructured zeolite (clinoptilolite) in the range of 0-0.6 wt% into matrix of polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. Of all the substrates prepared, the PES0.4 substrate (with 0.4 wt% zeolite) exhibited unique characteristics, i.e., increased surface porosity, lower structural parameter ( S) (from 0.78 to 0.48 mm), and enhanced water flux. The thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane made of this optimized substrate was also reported to exhibit higher water flux compared to the control composite membrane during forward osmosis (FO) and pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) test, without compromising reverse solute flux. The water flux of such TFN membrane was 43% higher than the control TFC membrane (1.93 L/m2 h bar) with salt rejection recorded at 94.7%. An increment in water flux is ascribed to the reduction in structural parameter, leading to reduced ICP effect.

Changes in physicochemical and transport properties of a reverse osmosis membrane exposed to chloraminated seawater

KAUST Repository

Valentino, Lauren; Renkens, Tennie; Maugin, Thomas; Crouè , Jean-Philippe Philippe; Mariñ as, Benito J.

2015-01-01

This study contributed to improving our understanding of how disinfectants, applied to control biofouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, result in membrane performance degradation. We investigated changes in physicochemical properties and permeation performance of a RO membrane with fully aromatic polyamide (PA) active layer. Membrane samples were exposed to varying concentrations of monochloramine, bromide, and iodide in both synthetic and natural seawater. Elemental analysis of the membrane active layer by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) revealed the incorporation of bromine and iodine into the polyamide. The kinetics of polyamide bromination were first order with respect to the concentration of the secondary oxidizing agent Br2 for the conditions investigated. Halogenated membranes were characterized after treatment with a reducing agent and heavy ion probes to reveal the occurrence of irreversible ring halogenation and an increase in carboxylic groups, the latter produced as a result of amide bond cleavage. Finally, permeation experiments revealed increases in both water permeability and salt passage as a result of oxidative damage.

Changes in physicochemical and transport properties of a reverse osmosis membrane exposed to chloraminated seawater

KAUST Repository

Valentino, Lauren

2015-02-17

This study contributed to improving our understanding of how disinfectants, applied to control biofouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, result in membrane performance degradation. We investigated changes in physicochemical properties and permeation performance of a RO membrane with fully aromatic polyamide (PA) active layer. Membrane samples were exposed to varying concentrations of monochloramine, bromide, and iodide in both synthetic and natural seawater. Elemental analysis of the membrane active layer by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) revealed the incorporation of bromine and iodine into the polyamide. The kinetics of polyamide bromination were first order with respect to the concentration of the secondary oxidizing agent Br2 for the conditions investigated. Halogenated membranes were characterized after treatment with a reducing agent and heavy ion probes to reveal the occurrence of irreversible ring halogenation and an increase in carboxylic groups, the latter produced as a result of amide bond cleavage. Finally, permeation experiments revealed increases in both water permeability and salt passage as a result of oxidative damage.

Osmotic versus conventional membrane bioreactors integrated with reverse osmosis for water reuse: Biological stability, membrane fouling, and contaminant removal.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Wenhai; Phan, Hop V; Xie, Ming; Hai, Faisal I; Price, William E; Elimelech, Menachem; Nghiem, Long D

2017-02-01

This study systematically compares the performance of osmotic membrane bioreactor - reverse osmosis (OMBR-RO) and conventional membrane bioreactor - reverse osmosis (MBR-RO) for advanced wastewater treatment and water reuse. Both systems achieved effective removal of bulk organic matter and nutrients, and almost complete removal of all 31 trace organic contaminants investigated. They both could produce high quality water suitable for recycling applications. During OMBR-RO operation, salinity build-up in the bioreactor reduced the water flux and negatively impacted the system biological treatment by altering biomass characteristics and microbial community structure. In addition, the elevated salinity also increased soluble microbial products and extracellular polymeric substances in the mixed liquor, which induced fouling of the forward osmosis (FO) membrane. Nevertheless, microbial analysis indicated that salinity stress resulted in the development of halotolerant bacteria, consequently sustaining biodegradation in the OMBR system. By contrast, biological performance was relatively stable throughout conventional MBR-RO operation. Compared to conventional MBR-RO, the FO process effectively prevented foulants from permeating into the draw solution, thereby significantly reducing fouling of the downstream RO membrane in OMBR-RO operation. Accumulation of organic matter, including humic- and protein-like substances, as well as inorganic salts in the MBR effluent resulted in severe RO membrane fouling in conventional MBR-RO operation. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fouling and cleaning of seawater reverse osmosis membranes in Kalpakkam Nuclear Desalination Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murugan, V.; Rajanbabu, K.; Tiwari, S.A.; Balasubramanian, C.; Yadav, Manoj Kumar; Dangore, A.Y.; Prabhakar, S.; Tewari, P.K.

2005-01-01

Seawater reverse osmosis plant of 1800 m 3 /day capacity is a part of 6300 m 3 /day capacity Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Project, at Kalpakkam. The plant was commissioned in October 2002 and is in continuous operation. This paper deals with types of foulants, membrane cleaning procedures and the improvement in the reverse osmosis system after cleaning. This paper also describes analysis of foulants which may consist of adsorbed organic compounds, particulate matter, microorganisms, metallic oxides and chemical cleaning procedure to be adopted, which is characteristics of sea water used as the membrane foulant is very much specific with respect to the sea water constituents. The cleaning of the membranes in Kalpakkam Nuclear Desalination plant were taken up as the quality of permeate deteriorated and differential pressure across membrane had gone-up. This paper essentially deals with selection of cleaning chemicals, the experience gained in cleaning procedure adopted and effects of cleaning for the membrane system. (author)

Fouling of Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Membrane: Chemical and Microbiological Characterization

KAUST Repository

Khan, Muhammad T.

2013-01-01

In spite of abundant water resources, world is suffering from the scarcity of usable water. Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination technology using polymeric membranes has been recognized as a key solution to water scarcity problem. However

Forward Osmosis in Wastewater Treatment Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Korenak, Jasmina; Basu, Subhankar; Balakrishnan, Malini; Hélix-Nielsen, Claus; Petrinic, Irena

2017-01-01

In recent years, membrane technology has been widely used in wastewater treatment and water purification. Membrane technology is simple to operate and produces very high quality water for human consumption and industrial purposes. One of the promising technologies for water and wastewater treatment is the application of forward osmosis. Essentially, forward osmosis is a process in which water is driven through a semipermeable membrane from a feed solution to a draw solution due to the osmotic pressure gradient across the membrane. The immediate advantage over existing pressure driven membrane technologies is that the forward osmosis process per se eliminates the need for operation with high hydraulic pressure and forward osmosis has low fouling tendency. Hence, it provides an opportunity for saving energy and membrane replacement cost. However, there are many limitations that still need to be addressed. Here we briefly review some of the applications within water purification and new developments in forward osmosis membrane fabrication.

Reverse osmosis membrane of high urea rejection properties. [water purification

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, C. C.; Wydeven, T. J. (Inventor)

1980-01-01

Polymeric membranes suitable for use in reverse osmosis water purification because of their high urea and salt rejection properties are prepared by generating a plasma of an unsaturated hydrocarbon monomer and nitrogen gas from an electrical source. A polymeric membrane is formed by depositing a polymer of the unsaturated monomer from the plasma onto a substrate, so that nitrogen from the nitrogen gas is incorporated within the polymer in a chemically combined form.

Seawater feed reverse osmosis preheating appraisal, Part I: leading element performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karameldin, A.; Saadawy, M.S.

2006-01-01

This paper is concerned with the seawater reverse osmosis preheating process, and presents a parametric study of the process. The basic transport equations describing the leading element are exhibited and appraised. The leading element, which governs the whole system performance, is studied and analysed. The incorporated and investigated operating parameters are the feed pressure and the temperature for different feed salt concentrations. In addition, different feed flow rates, effects on permeate flux and permeator salt rejection, together with the permeator recovery, are studied. A seawater membrane of a well-known data, for instance FT30SW380HR, is used to perform the study. The membrane water permeability coefficient K w is determined and correlated. Furthermore, the membrane salt permeability coefficient K s from the manufacturer system analysis program (ROSA) is given and discussed. The transport governing equations are programmed in a way that facilitates the achievement of a realistic parametric study. The results showed that the permeate flux increases significantly as the feed pressure increases. Also, it increases significantly as the feed salt concentration decreases, and also as the feed temperature and pressure increase. Meanwhile, the permeator salt rejection increases significantly as the feed pressure increases, and decreases significantly as the feed temperature increases. The study of the leading element of the array showed that there are constraints that must be considered, such as maximum membrane flux, maximum applied feed pressure, maximum feed flow rate and maximum feed temperature. Therefore, to attain the maximum membrane flux, the applied feed pressure must be lowered when the feed temperature is increased. In the case where the feed temperature is increased from 18 deg.. C to 45 deg.. C, a pressure saving of between 7% and 26% is achieved, according to the feed salt concentration and feed flow rate. (author)

Aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in forward osmosis: Chemical cleaning resistance and practical operation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Zhenyu; Linares, Rodrigo Valladares; Bucs, Szilard

2017-01-01

Aquaporin plays a promising role in fabricating high performance biomimetic forward osmosis (FO) membranes. However, aquaporin as a protein also has a risk of denaturation caused, by various chemicals, resulting in a possible decay of membrane performance. The present study tested a novel aquaporin...

Aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in forward osmosis: Chemical cleaning resistance and practical operation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Zhenyu; Linares, Rodrigo Valladares; Bucs, Szilard

2017-01-01

Aquaporin plays a promising role in fabricating high performance biomimetic forward osmosis (FO) membranes. However, aquaporin as a protein also has a risk of denaturation caused, by various chemicals, resulting in a possible decay of membrane performance. The present study tested a novel aquapor...

Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole as substrates for forward osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Phuoc, Duong

2015-02-25

Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole (PTA-POD) copolymers have been synthesized and cast as promising highly thermally stable, chemically resistant, and antiorganic/biological fouling porous substrates for the fabrication of thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes. The roles of PTA/POD ratios in the membrane substrates, TFC layers, and FO membrane performance have been investigated. This study demonstrates that the substrate fabricated from the copolymer containing 40 mol % PTA is optimal for the TFC membranes. Compared to the POD-TFC membrane, the 40 mol % PTA-TFC membrane exhibits a remarkable decrease in structural parameter (S) of more than 3.3 times. In addition, the 40 mol % PTA-TFC membrane is characterized by high water fluxes of 24.9 LMH and 47.2 LMH using 1 M NaCl as the draw solution and DI water as the feed under FO and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) modes, respectively. Compared to a polysulfone (PSU) supported TFC-FO membrane under similar fabrication conditions, the 40% mol PTA-TFC membrane shows better FO performance and enhanced antifouling properties on the support (lower protein binding propensity and improved bacterial inhibition). Moreover, the performance of the 40 mol % PTA supported TFC-FO membrane can be improved to 37.5 LMH (FO mode)/78.4 LMH (PRO mode) and potentially higher by optimizing the support morphology, the TFC formation, and the post-treatment process. Hence, the use of newly developed hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole copolymers may open up a new class of material for FO processes.

Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole as substrates for forward osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Phuoc, Duong; Chisca, Stefan; Hong, Pei-Ying; Cheng, Hong; Nunes, Suzana Pereira; Chung, Taishung

2015-01-01

Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole (PTA-POD) copolymers have been synthesized and cast as promising highly thermally stable, chemically resistant, and antiorganic/biological fouling porous substrates for the fabrication of thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes. The roles of PTA/POD ratios in the membrane substrates, TFC layers, and FO membrane performance have been investigated. This study demonstrates that the substrate fabricated from the copolymer containing 40 mol % PTA is optimal for the TFC membranes. Compared to the POD-TFC membrane, the 40 mol % PTA-TFC membrane exhibits a remarkable decrease in structural parameter (S) of more than 3.3 times. In addition, the 40 mol % PTA-TFC membrane is characterized by high water fluxes of 24.9 LMH and 47.2 LMH using 1 M NaCl as the draw solution and DI water as the feed under FO and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) modes, respectively. Compared to a polysulfone (PSU) supported TFC-FO membrane under similar fabrication conditions, the 40% mol PTA-TFC membrane shows better FO performance and enhanced antifouling properties on the support (lower protein binding propensity and improved bacterial inhibition). Moreover, the performance of the 40 mol % PTA supported TFC-FO membrane can be improved to 37.5 LMH (FO mode)/78.4 LMH (PRO mode) and potentially higher by optimizing the support morphology, the TFC formation, and the post-treatment process. Hence, the use of newly developed hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole copolymers may open up a new class of material for FO processes.

Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole as substrates for forward osmosis membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Duong, Phuoc H H; Chisca, Stefan; Hong, Pei-Ying; Cheng, Hong; Nunes, Suzana P; Chung, Tai-Shung

2015-02-25

Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole (PTA-POD) copolymers have been synthesized and cast as promising highly thermally stable, chemically resistant, and antiorganic/biological fouling porous substrates for the fabrication of thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes. The roles of PTA/POD ratios in the membrane substrates, TFC layers, and FO membrane performance have been investigated. This study demonstrates that the substrate fabricated from the copolymer containing 40 mol % PTA is optimal for the TFC membranes. Compared to the POD-TFC membrane, the 40 mol % PTA-TFC membrane exhibits a remarkable decrease in structural parameter (S) of more than 3.3 times. In addition, the 40 mol % PTA-TFC membrane is characterized by high water fluxes of 24.9 LMH and 47.2 LMH using 1 M NaCl as the draw solution and DI water as the feed under FO and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) modes, respectively. Compared to a polysulfone (PSU) supported TFC-FO membrane under similar fabrication conditions, the 40% mol PTA-TFC membrane shows better FO performance and enhanced antifouling properties on the support (lower protein binding propensity and improved bacterial inhibition). Moreover, the performance of the 40 mol % PTA supported TFC-FO membrane can be improved to 37.5 LMH (FO mode)/78.4 LMH (PRO mode) and potentially higher by optimizing the support morphology, the TFC formation, and the post-treatment process. Hence, the use of newly developed hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole copolymers may open up a new class of material for FO processes.

Reverse osmosis performance of cellulose acetate membranes in the separation of uranium from dilute solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sastri, V.S.; Ashbrook, A.W.

1976-01-01

Batch 316-type cellulose acetate membranes were characterized in terms of pure water permeability constant, solute transport parameter, and mass transfer coefficient with a reference system of aqueous sodium chloride solution. These membranes were used in the determination of reverse osmosis characteristics such as product rate and solute separation in the case of uranium sulfate solutions of different concentrations (100 to 8000 ppM) in the feed solutions. A long-term test extending over a week has been carried out with dilute uranium solutions. Reverse osmosis treatment of synthetic mine water sample showed satisfactory performance of the membranes in the separation of metal ions

Cell-element simulations to optimize the performance of osmotic processes in porous membranes

KAUST Repository

Calo, Victor M.

2018-05-11

We present a new module of the software tool PoreChem for 3D simulations of osmotic processes at the cell-element scale. We consider the most general fully coupled model (see e.g., Sagiv and Semiat (2011)) in 3D to evaluate the impact on the membrane performance of both internal and external concentration polarization, which occurs in a cell-element for different operational conditions. The model consists of the Navier–Stokes–Brinkman system to describe the free fluid flow and the flow within the membrane with selective and support layers, a convection–diffusion equation to describe the solute transport, and nonlinear interface conditions to fully couple these equations. First, we briefly describe the mathematical model and discuss the discretization of the continuous model, the iterative solution, and the software implementation. Then, we present the analytical and numerical validation of the simulation tool. Next, we perform and discuss numerical simulations for a case study. The case study concerns the design of a cell element for the forward osmosis experiments. Using the developed software tool we qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the performance of a cell element that we designed for laboratory experiments of forward osmosis, and discuss the differences between the numerical solutions obtained with the full 3D and reduced 2D models. Finally, we demonstrate how the software enables investigating membrane heterogeneities.

Fabrication and performance of PET mesh enhanced cellulose acetate membranes for forward osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Guoliang; Wang, Jun; Hou, Deyin; Bai, Yu; Liu, Huijuan

2016-07-01

Polyethylene terephthalate mesh (PET) enhanced cellulose acetate membranes were fabricated via a phase inversion process. The membrane fabrication parameters that may affect the membrane performance were systematically evaluated including the concentration and temperature of the casting polymer solution and the temperature and time of the evaporation, coagulation and annealing processes. The water permeability and reverse salt flux were measured in forward osmosis (FO) mode for determination of the optimal membrane fabrication conditions. The optimal FO membrane shows a typical asymmetric sandwich structure with a mean thickness of about 148.2μm. The performance of the optimal FO membrane was tested using 0.2mol/L NaCl as the feed solution and 1.5mol/L glucose as the draw solution. The membrane displayed a water flux of 3.47L/(m(2)·hr) and salt rejection of 95.48% in FO mode. While in pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) mode, the water flux was 4.74L/(m(2)·hr) and salt rejection 96.03%. The high ratio of water flux in FO mode to that in PRO mode indicates that the fabricated membrane has a lower degree of internal concentration polarization than comparable membranes. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A novel reverse osmosis membrane modified by polyvinyl alcohol with maleic anhydride crosslinking

Science.gov (United States)

Samnani, Mohit; Rathod, Harshad; Raval, Hiren

2018-03-01

In the era of increasing energy crisis, it is inevitable to decrease process energy consumption to increase process viability and curtail green-house gas emission. The Reverse Osmosis plant requires significant energy to transfer water overcoming the osmotic pressure. This paper focuses on increasing the water flux for Thin Film Composite Reverse Osmosis (TFC RO) membrane without compromising salt rejection performance leading to the environmentally friendly and economically attractive process. The virgin TFC RO membrane was exposed to solution of sodium hypochlorite of concentration 2000 mg l-1 for 1 h to activate the surface of the membrane, followed by the treatment with the mixture of polyvinyl alcohol and maleic anhydride with varying concentrations for 1 h and curing in the oven at 80 °C temperature for 10 min. Out of all the treated membranes, the membrane treated with 2000 mg l-1 polyvinyl alcohol and 1000 mg l-1 maleic anhydride demonstrated the highest salt rejection of 96.83 % with 2% increase as compared to the virgin TFC RO membrane. The water flux of the membrane was around 44% higher than the virgin TFC RO membrane. The membrane samples were characterized by atomic force micrographs, ATR-FTIR, Nuclear magnetic resonance and Dynamic mechanical analysis.

A Mechanistic Study of Arsenic (III) Rejection by Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membranes

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Tasuma

2009-01-01

Reverse osmosis/nanofiltration (RO/NF) membranes are capable to provide an effective barrier for a wide range of contaminants (including disinfection by-products precursors) in a single treatment step. However, solute rejection mechanisms by RO/NF membranes are not well understood. The lack of mechanistic information arises from experimental…

Novel Commercial Aquaporin Flat-Sheet Membrane for Forward Osmosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xia, Lingling; Andersen, Mads Friis; Hélix-Nielsen, Claus

2017-01-01

Aquaporin proteins are of great interest to the membrane science community because of their unique characteristics of high water permeability and perfect molecular selectivity. Although these characteristics make aquaporins particularly valuable for desalination applications, none of these aquapo...... was found to exhibit water and reverse solute flux performances similar to those of other commercially available varieties, although this membrane represents one of the few TFC membranes that is available to the academic community for FO testing at the time of this writing.......Aquaporin proteins are of great interest to the membrane science community because of their unique characteristics of high water permeability and perfect molecular selectivity. Although these characteristics make aquaporins particularly valuable for desalination applications, none...... of these aquaporin-based membrane designs has been produced at a large scale. In this work, we report on the recently designed and commercially available Aquaporin Inside flat-sheet membrane designed for forward osmosis (FO) by Aquaporin A/S, Lyngby, Denmark. The Aquaporin Inside flat-sheet membrane is the first...

Relating performance of thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes to support layer formation and structure

KAUST Repository

Tiraferri, Alberto

2011-02-01

Osmotically driven membrane processes have the potential to treat impaired water sources, desalinate sea/brackish waters, and sustainably produce energy. The development of a membrane tailored for these processes is essential to advance the technology to the point that it is commercially viable. Here, a systematic investigation of the influence of thin-film composite membrane support layer structure on forward osmosis performance is conducted. The membranes consist of a selective polyamide active layer formed by interfacial polymerization on top of a polysulfone support layer fabricated by phase separation. By systematically varying the conditions used during the casting of the polysulfone layer, an array of support layers with differing structures was produced. The role that solvent quality, dope polymer concentration, fabric layer wetting, and casting blade gate height play in the support layer structure formation was investigated. Using a 1M NaCl draw solution and a deionized water feed, water fluxes ranging from 4 to 25Lm-2h-1 with consistently high salt rejection (>95.5%) were produced. The relationship between membrane structure and performance was analyzed. This study confirms the hypothesis that the optimal forward osmosis membrane consists of a mixed-structure support layer, where a thin sponge-like layer sits on top of highly porous macrovoids. Both the active layer transport properties and the support layer structural characteristics need to be optimized in order to fabricate a high performance forward osmosis membrane. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Forward Osmosis in Wastewater Treatment Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korenak, Jasmina; Basu, Subhankar; Balakrishnan, Malini

2017-01-01

In recent years, membrane technology has been widely used in wastewater treatment and water purification. Membrane technology is simple to operate and produces very high quality water for human consumption and industrial purposes. One of the promising technologies for water and wastewater treatment...... is the application of forward osmosis. Essentially, forward osmosis is a process in which water is driven through a semipermeable membrane from a feed solution to a draw solution due to the osmotic pressure gradient across the membrane. The immediate advantage over existing pressure driven membrane technologies...... briefly review some of the applications within water purification and new developments in forward osmosis membrane fabrication....

An investigation of desalination by nanofiltration, reverse osmosis and integrated (hybrid NF/RO) membranes employed in brackish water treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Talaeipour, M; Nouri, J; Hassani, A H; Mahvi, A H

2017-01-01

As an appropriate tool, membrane process is used for desalination of brackish water, in the production of drinking water. The present study aims to investigate desalination processes of brackish water of Qom Province in Iran. This study was carried out at the central laboratory of Water and Wastewater Company of the studied area. To this aim, membrane processes, including nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), separately and also their hybrid process were applied. Moreover, water physical and chemical parameters, including salinity, total dissolved solids (TDS), electric conductivity (EC), Na +1 and Cl -1 were also measured. Afterward, the rejection percent of each parameter was investigated and compared using nanofiltration and reverse osmosis separately and also by their hybrid process. The treatment process was performed by Luna domestic desalination device, which its membrane was replaced by two NF90 and TW30 membranes for nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes, respectively. All collected brackish water samples were fed through membranes NF90-2540, TW30-1821-100(RO) and Hybrid (NF/RO) which were installed on desalination household scale pilot (Luna water 100GPD). Then, to study the effects of pressure on permeable quality of membranes, the simulation software model ROSA was applied. Results showed that percent of the salinity rejection was recorded as 50.21%; 72.82 and 78.56% in NF, RO and hybrid processes, respectively. During the study, in order to simulate the performance of nanofiltartion, reverse osmosis and hybrid by pressure drive, reverse osmosis system analysis (ROSA) model was applied. The experiments were conducted at performance three methods of desalination to remove physic-chemical parameters as percentage of rejections in the pilot plant are: in the NF system the salinity 50.21, TDS 43.41, EC 43.62, Cl 21.1, Na 36.15, and in the RO membrane the salinity 72.02, TDS 60.26, EC 60.33, Cl 43.08, Na 54.41. Also in case of the rejection in

Flux Recovery of a Forward Osmosis Membrane After a Fouling Process

Science.gov (United States)

Romero-Mangado, Jaione; Parodi, Jurek; Gamboa-Vazquez, Sonia; Stefanson, Ofir; Diaz-Cartagena, Diana C.; Flynn, Michael

2016-01-01

Wastewater treatment through forward osmosis (FO) membranes is a process that has been evaluated in the past years as an innovative technology for the Next Generation Life Support Systems. FO technologies are cost effective, and require very low energy consumption, but are subject to membrane fouling. Membrane fouling occurs when unwanted materials accumulate on the active side of the membrane during the wastewater treatment process, which leads to a decrease in membrane flux rate. The aim of this study is to identify the materials that cause flux rate reduction due to membrane fouling, as well as to evaluate the flux rate recovery after membrane treatment using commercially available antifoulants. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometry results identified possible compounds that cause membrane fouling and FO testing results demonstrated flux rate recovery after membrane treatment using antifoulants.

Fouling distribution in forward osmosis membrane process.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Junseok; Kim, Bongchul; Hong, Seungkwan

2014-06-01

Fouling behavior along the length of membrane module was systematically investigated by performing simple modeling and lab-scale experiments of forward osmosis (FO) membrane process. The flux distribution model developed in this study showed a good agreement with experimental results, validating the robustness of the model. This model demonstrated, as expected, that the permeate flux decreased along the membrane channel due to decreasing osmotic pressure differential across the FO membrane. A series of fouling experiments were conducted under the draw and feed solutions at various recoveries simulated by the model. The simulated fouling experiments revealed that higher organic (alginate) fouling and thus more flux decline were observed at the last section of a membrane channel, as foulants in feed solution became more concentrated. Furthermore, the water flux in FO process declined more severely as the recovery increased due to more foulants transported to membrane surface with elevated solute concentrations at higher recovery, which created favorable solution environments for organic adsorption. The fouling reversibility also decreased at the last section of the membrane channel, suggesting that fouling distribution on FO membrane along the module should be carefully examined to improve overall cleaning efficiency. Lastly, it was found that such fouling distribution observed with co-current flow operation became less pronounced in counter-current flow operation of FO membrane process. Copyright © 2014 The Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relating performance of thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes to support layer formation and structure

KAUST Repository

Tiraferri, Alberto; Yip, Ngai Yin; Phillip, William A.; Schiffman, Jessica D.; Elimelech, Menachem

2011-01-01

the technology to the point that it is commercially viable. Here, a systematic investigation of the influence of thin-film composite membrane support layer structure on forward osmosis performance is conducted. The membranes consist of a selective polyamide

Forward Osmosis Process

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang

2013-12-05

A process that can alleviate the internal concentration polarization and can enhance membrane performance of a forward osmosis system includes the steps of passing a fluid in a forward osmosis system from a feed solution with a first osmotic pressure, through a membrane into a draw solution comprising a draw solute with a second osmotic pressure, where the first osmotic pressure is lower than the second osmotic pressure, the membrane includes an active layer and a support layer, and the membrane is oriented such that the active layer of the membrane faces a draw side, and the support layer faces a feed side; and applying an external force to the fluid on the feed side of the membrane.

Forward Osmosis Process

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang; Pinnau, Ingo; Litwiller, Eric

2013-01-01

A process that can alleviate the internal concentration polarization and can enhance membrane performance of a forward osmosis system includes the steps of passing a fluid in a forward osmosis system from a feed solution with a first osmotic pressure, through a membrane into a draw solution comprising a draw solute with a second osmotic pressure, where the first osmotic pressure is lower than the second osmotic pressure, the membrane includes an active layer and a support layer, and the membrane is oriented such that the active layer of the membrane faces a draw side, and the support layer faces a feed side; and applying an external force to the fluid on the feed side of the membrane.

Phosphorus and water recovery by a novel osmotic membrane bioreactor-reverse osmosis system.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Wenhai; Hai, Faisal I; Price, William E; Guo, Wenshan; Ngo, Hao H; Yamamoto, Kazuo; Nghiem, Long D

2016-01-01

An osmotic membrane bioreactor-reverse osmosis (OMBR-RO) hybrid system integrated with periodic microfiltration (MF) extraction was evaluated for simultaneous phosphorus and clean water recovery from raw sewage. In this hybrid system, the forward osmosis membrane effectively retained inorganic salts and phosphate in the bioreactor, while the MF membrane periodically bled them out for phosphorus recovery with pH adjustment. The RO process was used for draw solute recovery and clean water production. Results show that phosphorus recuperation from the MF permeate was most effective when the solution pH was adjusted to 10, whereby the recovered precipitate contained 15-20% (wt/wt) of phosphorus. Periodic MF extraction also limited salinity build-up in the bioreactor, resulting in a stable biological performance and an increase in water flux during OMBR operation. Despite the build-up of organic matter and ammonia in the draw solution, OMBR-RO allowed for the recovery of high quality reused water. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Short Review of Membrane Fouling in Forward Osmosis Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Chun, Youngpil; Mulcahy, Dennis; Zou, Linda; Kim, In S.

2017-01-01

Interest in forward osmosis (FO) research has rapidly increased in the last decade due to problems of water and energy scarcity. FO processes have been used in many applications, including wastewater reclamation, desalination, energy production, fertigation, and food and pharmaceutical processing. However, the inherent disadvantages of FO, such as lower permeate water flux compared to pressure driven membrane processes, concentration polarisation (CP), reverse salt diffusion, the energy consumption of draw solution recovery and issues of membrane fouling have restricted its industrial applications. This paper focuses on the fouling phenomena of FO processes in different areas, including organic, inorganic and biological categories, for better understanding of this long-standing issue in membrane processes. Furthermore, membrane fouling monitoring and mitigation strategies are reviewed. PMID:28604649

Full-scale simulation of seawater reverse osmosis desalination processes for boron removal: Effect of membrane fouling.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Pyung-Kyu; Lee, Sangho; Cho, Jae-Seok; Kim, Jae-Hong

2012-08-01

The objective of this study is to further develop previously reported mechanistic predictive model that simulates boron removal in full-scale seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination processes to take into account the effect of membrane fouling. Decrease of boron removal and reduction in water production rate by membrane fouling due to enhanced concentration polarization were simulated as a decrease in solute mass transfer coefficient in boundary layer on membrane surface. Various design and operating options under fouling condition were examined including single- versus double-pass configurations, different number of RO elements per vessel, use of RO membranes with enhanced boron rejection, and pH adjustment. These options were quantitatively compared by normalizing the performance of the system in terms of E(min), the minimum energy costs per product water. Simulation results suggested that most viable options to enhance boron rejection among those tested in this study include: i) minimizing fouling, ii) exchanging the existing SWRO elements to boron-specific ones, and iii) increasing pH in the second pass. The model developed in this study is expected to help design and optimization of the RO processes to achieve the target boron removal at target water recovery under realistic conditions where membrane fouling occurs during operation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Separation performance and interfacial properties of nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Pendergast, MaryTheresa M.; Ghosh, Asim K.; Hoek, E.M.V.

2013-01-01

Four different types of nanocomposite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were formed by interfacial polymerization of either polyamide (PA) or zeolite A-polyamide nanocomposite (ZA-PA) thin films over either pure polysulfone (PSf) or zeolite A-polysulfone nanocomposite (ZA-PSf) support membranes cast by wet phase inversion. All three nanocomposite membranes exhibited superior separation performance and interfacial properties relative to hand-cast TFC analogs including: (1) smoother, more hydrophilic surfaces (2) higher water permeability and salt rejection, and (3) improved resistance to physical compaction. Less compaction occurred for membranes with nanoparticles embedded in interfacially polymerized coating films, which adds further proof that flux decline associated with physical compaction is influenced by coating film properties in addition to support membrane properties. The new classes of nanocomposite membrane materials continue to offer promise of further improved RO membranes for use in desalination and advanced water purification. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Surface modification of seawater desalination reverse osmosis membranes: Characterization studies & performance evaluation

KAUST Repository

Matin, Asif

2014-06-01

In this work we report surface modification of commercial reverse osmosis membranes by depositing ultrathin copolymer coatings, which could potentially enhance the biofouling resistance of RO membranes. Hydrophilic monomer hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and a hydrophobic monomer, perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) were copolymerized directly on the active layer of commercial aromatic polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes using an initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (iCVD) technique. Attenuated total reflective Fourier transform infrared spectra (ATR-FTIR) verified the successful modification of the membrane surfaces as a new FTIR adsorption band around 1730cm-1 corresponding to carbonyl groups in the copolymer film appeared after the deposition. X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis also confirmed the presence of the copolymer film on the membrane surface by showing strong fluorine peaks emanating from the fluorinated alkyl side chains of the PFA molecules. Contact angle measurements with deionized water showed the modified membrane surfaces to be initially very hydrophobic but quickly assumed a hydrophilic character within few minutes. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) revealed that the deposited films were smooth and conformal as the surface topology of the underlying membrane surface remained virtually unchanged after the deposition. FESEM images of the top surface also showed that the typical ridge-and-valley structure associated with polyamide remained intact after the deposition. Short-term permeation tests using DI water and 2000ppm NaCl water showed that the deposited copolymer coatings had negligible effect on permeate water flux and salt rejection. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The impact of chemical cleaning on separation efficiency and properties of reverse osmosis membrane

KAUST Repository

Baatiyyah, Hani

2018-04-01

One of most major concerns from both cost-effective and technical point of view in membrane process industry is membrane cleaning. The aim of the project was to investigate the variations in membrane surface properties and separation efficiency of reverse osmosis membrane. Compativtive analysis have to be performed on four RO membrane before and after exposing the virgin membrane into chemical cleaning to identify and analysis the impact of the chemical cleaning on the performance of RO membrane. Commerical chemical cleaning used in this project were caustic and acidic cleaning agent. The project’s aim is the investigation of simulation software’s precision for the four membranes performance projection at different conditions of the feed water. The assessment of the membranes performance was done in the Innovation Cluster at pilot plant that was industrial in size. The main commercial elements used were the thin-film composite membranes with a spiral-wound of 8-inch polyamide. Ultrafiltration (UF) and seawater RO membrane pretreatment process was done for the red sea sourced feed water. A pressure vessel dimensioned at 8-inch was operated in conjunction with an individual element at 8 -20 m3/hr feed flow rate, with an 8 to 12 % recovery and an average 35,000-42,000 mg/L of total dissolved solids (TDS) composition for the feed water. To achieve the project’s aim in assessing the membranes, three phase experimental stages were completed. The membranes performance was assessed in terms of their water flux, salt rejection, boron rejection, bicarbonate rejection and permeate quality. In addition, the membrane surfaces were characterized after exposing the fresh membranes with a chemical cleaning reagent. The experimental results showed an increase in both permeate flow and salt passage for all studied elements. The changes in the membranes performance were systematically explained based on the changes in the charge density and chemical structure of the membranes

Advantages and application of forward osmosis

Science.gov (United States)

This month's Processing column explores the use of forward osmosis to dewater and concentrate. Forward osmosis is performed with specially designed membranes and requires very little energy. Where thermal evaporation and reverse osmosis may damage or alter products, forward osmosis preserves the s...

REVERSE OSMOSIS CONCENTRATION OF ORANGE JUICE USING SPIRAL WOUND MEMBRANES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. A. de ARAUJO

2009-03-01

Full Text Available

Flavor and odor components of foods are often lost during processing which leads to a poorer quality final product compared with the fresh ingredients. The orange juice industry concentrates juice (45-66ºBrix in TASTE (Thermally Accelerated Short Time Evaporator to remove excess water, and thus reduce storage and transportation costs, but also to improve product stability. Evaporation results in a loss of fresh juice flavors, color degradation and “cooked” taste due to the thermal effects. Methods using less heat for thermal damage reduction must be investigated to establish parameters for future commercial processes. The promising alternative is Reverse Osmosis (RO, but it cannot achieve concentrations greater than 30ºBrix. RO has advantages over traditional evaporation techniques in removing water. Because less heat is used, thermal damage to products is generally eliminated. In this project tests were performed using unpasteurised Single Strength Orange Juice (SSOJ, spiral wound membranes (Polyamide, and a DESAL pilot system model 4040. The aim was to evaluate spiral wound membranes on the basis of flux as a function of time. Retentate concentrations were 15-20ºBrix, and GC-FID analyses were used in order to understand aroma losses. KEYWORDS: Orange; juice; membrane; concentration; osmosis; reverse.

Preparation and water desalination properties of POSS-polyamide nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang; Litwiller, Eric; Pinnau, Ingo

2015-01-01

osmosis membranes was systematically investigated. Four POSS materials (P-8Phenyl, P-8NH3Cl, P-8NH2 and P-1NH2) were introduced into the selective layer by physical blending or chemical fixation during standard interfacial polymerization. Water flux and Na

Asymmetric polivinylidenfluoride (PVDF) radiation grafted membranes: Preparation and performance in reverse osmosis application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vigo, F.; Capannelli, G.; Uliana, C.; Munari, S.

1981-01-01

A new type of reverse osmosis membrane has been synthesized. Membranes were prepared starting from asymmetric PVDF films, obtained by the casting and gelation technique and modified by radiochemical grafting and sulphonation. These membranes were tested in an RO laboratory plant and their performances were determined as a function of preparative parameters. The influences of evaporation time and temperature grafting and solvents were investigated. These membranes exhibit permeabilities as high as 2000 1/m 2 d and sodium chloride rejections up to 70%. (orig.)

NOM and TEP fouling of a forward osmosis (FO) membrane: Foulant identification and cleaning

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo

2012-12-01

The study of forward osmosis (FO) membranes has increased due to the already demonstrated advantages compared to high-energy membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO). This research focuses on characterization of the natural organic matter (NOM) fraction causing fouling on the active layer (AL) of a FO membrane in a novel plate and frame module configuration, facing secondary wastewater effluent as a feed solution (FS) and seawater used as a draw solution (DS). In addition, transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) were observed on the support layer (SL) of the membrane in contact with the DS. The NOM fouling layer, after characterizing the water samples and membranes used, was found to be composed of biopolymers and protein-like substances, which adversely affect the flux of water through the FO membrane. However, NOM fouling showed high reversibility, up to 90% when air scouring for 15. min is used as a cleaning technique. The irreversible fouling in this work was found to be 8.2% after chemical cleaning. On the support layer of the membrane, TEP formed clusters clearly identifiable with an optical microscope and a TEP-specific dye. Chemical cleaning with 1% NaOCl for 10. min proved to be the most effective method to remove TEP. © 2012.

NOM and TEP fouling of a forward osmosis (FO) membrane: Foulant identification and cleaning

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Yangali-Quintanilla, Victor; Li, Zhenyu; Amy, Gary L.

2012-01-01

The study of forward osmosis (FO) membranes has increased due to the already demonstrated advantages compared to high-energy membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO). This research focuses on characterization of the natural organic matter (NOM) fraction causing fouling on the active layer (AL) of a FO membrane in a novel plate and frame module configuration, facing secondary wastewater effluent as a feed solution (FS) and seawater used as a draw solution (DS). In addition, transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) were observed on the support layer (SL) of the membrane in contact with the DS. The NOM fouling layer, after characterizing the water samples and membranes used, was found to be composed of biopolymers and protein-like substances, which adversely affect the flux of water through the FO membrane. However, NOM fouling showed high reversibility, up to 90% when air scouring for 15. min is used as a cleaning technique. The irreversible fouling in this work was found to be 8.2% after chemical cleaning. On the support layer of the membrane, TEP formed clusters clearly identifiable with an optical microscope and a TEP-specific dye. Chemical cleaning with 1% NaOCl for 10. min proved to be the most effective method to remove TEP. © 2012.

Does Chlorination of Seawater Reverse Osmosis Membranes Control Biofouling?

KAUST Repository

Khan, Muhammad Tariq; Hong, Pei-Ying; Nada, Nabil; Croue, Jean Philippe

2015-01-01

Biofouling is the major problem of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes used for desalting seawater (SW). The use of chlorine is a conventional and common practice to control/prevent biofouling. Unlike polyamide RO membranes, cellulose triacetate (CTA) RO membranes display a high chlorine tolerance. Due to this characteristic, CTA membranes are used in most of the RO plants located in the Middle East region where the elevated seawater temperature and water quality promote the risk of membrane biofouling. However, there is no detailed study on the investigation/characterization of CTA-RO membrane fouling. In this investigation, the fouling profile of a full–scale SWRO desalination plant operating with not only continuous chlorination of raw seawater but also intermittent chlorination of CTA-RO membranes was studied. Detailed water quality and membrane fouling analyses were conducted. Profiles of microbiological, inorganic, and organic constituents of analysed fouling layers were extensively discussed. Our results clearly identified biofilm development on these membranes. The incapability of chlorination on preventing biofilm formation on SWRO membranes could be assigned to its failure in effectively reaching throughout the different regions of the permeators. This failure could have occurred due to three main factors: plugging of membrane fibers, chlorine consumption by organics accumulated on the front side fibers, or chlorine adaptation of certain bacterial populations.

Does Chlorination of Seawater Reverse Osmosis Membranes Control Biofouling?

KAUST Repository

Khan, Muhammad Tariq

2015-04-01

Biofouling is the major problem of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes used for desalting seawater (SW). The use of chlorine is a conventional and common practice to control/prevent biofouling. Unlike polyamide RO membranes, cellulose triacetate (CTA) RO membranes display a high chlorine tolerance. Due to this characteristic, CTA membranes are used in most of the RO plants located in the Middle East region where the elevated seawater temperature and water quality promote the risk of membrane biofouling. However, there is no detailed study on the investigation/characterization of CTA-RO membrane fouling. In this investigation, the fouling profile of a full–scale SWRO desalination plant operating with not only continuous chlorination of raw seawater but also intermittent chlorination of CTA-RO membranes was studied. Detailed water quality and membrane fouling analyses were conducted. Profiles of microbiological, inorganic, and organic constituents of analysed fouling layers were extensively discussed. Our results clearly identified biofilm development on these membranes. The incapability of chlorination on preventing biofilm formation on SWRO membranes could be assigned to its failure in effectively reaching throughout the different regions of the permeators. This failure could have occurred due to three main factors: plugging of membrane fibers, chlorine consumption by organics accumulated on the front side fibers, or chlorine adaptation of certain bacterial populations.

Thin-Film Composite Pressure Retarded Osmosis Membranes for Sustainable Power Generation from Salinity Gradients

KAUST Repository

Yip, Ngai Yin

2011-05-15

Pressure retarded osmosis has the potential to produce renewable energy from natural salinity gradients. This work presents the fabrication of thin-film composite membranes customized for high performance in pressure retarded osmosis. We also present the development of a theoretical model to predict the water flux in pressure retarded osmosis, from which we can predict the power density that can be achieved by a membrane. The model is the first to incorporate external concentration polarization, a performance limiting phenomenon that becomes significant for high-performance membranes. The fabricated membranes consist of a selective polyamide layer formed by interfacial polymerization on top of a polysulfone support layer made by phase separation. The highly porous support layer (structural parameter S = 349 μm), which minimizes internal concentration polarization, allows the transport properties of the active layer to be customized to enhance PRO performance. It is shown that a hand-cast membrane that balances permeability and selectivity (A = 5.81 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, B = 0.88 L m-2 h-1) is projected to achieve the highest potential peak power density of 10.0 W/m2 for a river water feed solution and seawater draw solution. The outstanding performance of this membrane is attributed to the high water permeability of the active layer, coupled with a moderate salt permeability and the ability of the support layer to suppress the undesirable accumulation of leaked salt in the porous support. Membranes with greater selectivity (i.e., lower salt permeability, B = 0.16 L m-2 h-1) suffered from a lower water permeability (A = 1.74 L m-2 h-1 bar-1) and would yield a lower peak power density of 6.1 W/m2, while membranes with a higher permeability and lower selectivity (A = 7.55 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, B = 5.45 L m-2 h-1) performed poorly due to severe reverse salt permeation, resulting in a similar projected peak power density of 6.1 W/m2. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Developing thin-film-composite forward osmosis membranes on the PES/SPSf substrate through interfacial polymerization

KAUST Repository

Wang, Kaiyu

2011-04-22

A new scheme has been developed to fabricate high-performance forward osmosis (FO) membranes through the interfacial polymerization reaction on porous polymeric supports. p-Phenylenediamine and 1,3,5-trimesoylchloride were adopted as the monomers for the in-situ polycondensation reaction to form a thin aromatic polyamide selective layer of 150 nm in thickness on the substrate surface, a lab-made polyethersulfone (PES)/sulfonated polysulfone (SPSf)-alloyed porous membrane with enhanced hydrophilicity. Under FO tests, the FO membrane achieved a higher water flux of 69.8 LMH when against deionized water and 25.2 LMH when against a model 3.5 wt % NaCl solution under 5.0 M NaCl as the draw solution in the pressure-retarded osmosis mode. The PES/SPSf thin-film-composite (TFC)-FO membrane has a smaller structural parameter S of 238 μm than those reported data. The morphology and topology of substrates and TFC-FO membranes have been studied by means of atomic force microscopy and scanning electronic microscopy. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Modification of Polyamide-Urethane (PAUt Thin Film Composite Membrane for Improving the Reverse Osmosis Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li-Fen Liu

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In the current study, the poly (amide-urethane (PAUt membranes were successfully fabricated by interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine (MPD and 5-choroformyloxyisophaloyl chloride (CFIC on the polysulfone substrates. Two modification methods based on layer-by-layer assembly were applied to modify the PAUt membrane surface to achieve antifouling property: 1. Chitosan (CS was directly self-assembled on the PAUt membrane (i.e., PAUt-CS; and 2. polydimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride (PDDA, polystyrene sulfonate (PSS, and CS were successively self-assembled on the membrane surface (i.e., PAUt-PDDA/PSS/CS. The resultant membranes were symmetrically characterized by Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM and Contact Angle Meter (CAM, respectively. The results indicated that the modified membranes had much smoother and more hydrophilic surfaces as compared to the nascent PAUt membrane. Meanwhile, the modified membranes exhibited better reverse osmosis performance in terms of water permeability and salt rejection. After the modified membranes were fouled by lake water, the PAUt-PDDA/PSS/CS membrane presented the best antifouling performance among the three types of membranes. Combining the reverse osmosis performance with the anti-fouling property obviously, the PAUt-PDDA/PSS/CS membrane behaved as a promising candidate to be used in real applications.

Performances of nanofiltration and low pressure reverse osmosis membranes for desalination: characterization and modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Boussouga, Y. A.; Lhassani, A.

2017-03-01

The nanofiltration and the reverse osmosis processes are the most common techniques for the desalination of water contaminated by an excess of salts. In this present study, we were interested in the characterization of commercial, composite and asymmetric membranes of nanofiltration (NF90, NF270) and low pressure reverse osmosis (BW30LE). The two types of characterization that we opted for our study: (i) characterization of electrical proprieties, in terms of the surface charge of various membranes studied by the measurement of the streaming potential, (ii) hydrodynamic characterization in terms of hydraulic permeability with pure water, mass transfer and phenomenological parameters for each system membrane/salt using hydrodynamic approaches. The irreversible thermodynamics allowed us to model the observed retention Robs of salts (NaCl and Na2SO4) for the different membranes studied, to understand and to predict a good filtration with a membrane. A study was conducted on the type of mass transfer for each system membrane/salt: convection and diffusion. The results showed that all tested membranes are negatively charged for the solutions at neutral pH, this is explained by their material composition. The results also showed competitiveness between the different types of membranes. In view of that the NF remains effective in terms of selective retention with less energy consumption than LPRO.

Hybrid membrane system for desalination and wastewater treatment: Integrating forward osmosis and low pressure reverse osmosis

OpenAIRE

Valladares Linares, R.

2014-01-01

Since more than 97% of the water in the world is seawater, desalination technologies have the potential to solve the fresh water crisis. The most used desalination technology nowadays is seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), where a membrane is used as a physical barrier to separate the salts from the water, using high hydraulic pressure as the driving force. However, the use of high hydraulic pressure imposes a high cost on operation of these systems, in addition to the known persistent fouling p...

Assessing the removal of organic micro-pollutants from anaerobic membrane bioreactor effluent by fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Kim, Youngjin; Li, Sheng; Chekli, Laura; Woo, Yun Chul; Wei, Chunhai; Phuntsho, Sherub; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Leiknes, TorOve; Shon, Ho Kyong

2017-01-01

In this study, the behavior of organic micro-pollutants (OMPs) transport including membrane fouling was assessed in fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) during treatment of the anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) effluent. The flux decline

Novel Fouling-Reducing Coatings for Ultrafiltration, Nanofiltration, and Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benny Freeman

2008-08-31

Polymeric membranes could potentially be the most flexible and viable long-term strategy for treatment of produced water from oil and gas production. However, widespread use of membranes, including reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, for produced water purification is hindered due to fouling caused by the impurities present in the water. Fouling of RO membranes is likely caused by surface properties including roughness, hydrophilicity, and charge, so surface modification is the most widely considered approach to improve the fouling properties of current RO membranes. This project focuses on two main approaches to surface modification: coating and grafting. Hydrophilic coating and grafting materials based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) are applied to commercial RO membranes manufactured by Dow FilmTec and GE. Crossflow filtration experiments are used to determine the fouling resistance of modified membranes, and compare their performance to that of unmodified commercial RO membranes. Grafting and coating are shown to be two alternative methods of producing modified membranes with improved fouling resistance.

Anomalous osmosis resulting from preferential absorption

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Staverman, A.J.; Kruissink, C.A.; Pals, D.T.F.

1965-01-01

An explanation of the anomalous osmosis described in the preceding paper is given in terms of friction coefficients in the glass membrane. It is shown that anomalous osmosis may be expected when the friction coefficients are constant and positive provided that the membrane absorbs solute strongly

Biofouling of reverse osmosis membranes used in river water purification for drinking purposes: analysis of microbial populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiellini, Carolina; Iannelli, Renato; Modeo, Letizia; Bianchi, Veronica; Petroni, Giulio

2012-01-01

Biofouling in water treatment processes represents one of the most frequent causes of plant performance decline. Investigation of clogged membranes (reverse osmosis membranes, microfiltration membranes and ultrafiltration membranes) is generally performed on fresh membranes. In the present study, a multidisciplinary autopsy of a reverse osmosis membrane (ROM) was conducted. The membrane, which was used in sulfate-rich river water purification for drinking purposes, had become inoperative after 6 months because of biofouling and was later stored for 18 months in dry conditions before analysis. SSU rRNA gene library construction, clone sequencing, T-RFLP, light microscope, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations were used to identify the microorganisms present on the membrane and possibly responsible for biofouling at the time of removal. The microorganisms were mainly represented by bacteria belonging to the phylum Actinobacteria and by a single protozoan species belonging to the Lobosea group. The microbiological analysis was interpreted in the context of the treatment plant operations to hypothesize as to the possible mechanisms used by microorganisms to enter the plant and colonize the ROM surface.

Application of reverse osmosis membrane technology for liquid radioactive waste processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Juan

2010-01-01

Liquid radioactive waste (LRW) processing should bear an acceptable level of residual radioactivity for discharge and meet the request of energy saving and waste minimization. Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology has been developed as a novel process for LRW processing. Five basic operating parameters of flux, recovery factor, rejection factor, concentration factor and decontamination factor were described, and the latter two parameters were the most important. Concentration factor and decontamination factor should be as high as possible and simultaneously the operating cost for membrane filtration should be low. Technical design considerations for membrane process were discussed and optimized from the aspects of pretreatment, membrane module choice and arrangement and membrane clear out. Application and investigation of RO membrane technology for LRW processing were introduced and it should be noted that the RO membrane technology has been introduced into overseas nuclear power plants for LRW processing and interiorly in the stage of investigation. (authors)

Biofilm Formation on Reverse Osmosis Membranes Is Initiated and Dominated by Sphingomonas spp.▿ †

Science.gov (United States)

Bereschenko, L. A.; Stams, A. J. M.; Euverink, G. J. W.; van Loosdrecht, M. C. M.

2010-01-01

The initial formation and spatiotemporal development of microbial biofilm layers on surfaces of new and clean reverse osmosis (RO) membranes and feed-side spacers were monitored in situ using flow cells placed in parallel with the RO system of a full-scale water treatment plant. The feed water of the RO system had been treated by the sequential application of coagulation, flocculation, sand filtration, ultrafiltration, and cartridge filtration processes. The design of the flow cells permitted the production of permeate under cross-flow conditions similar to those in spiral-wound RO membrane elements of the full-scale system. Membrane autopsies were done after 4, 8, 16, and 32 days of flow-cell operation. A combination of molecular (fluorescence in situ hybridization [FISH], denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE], and cloning) and microscopic (field emission scanning electron, epifluorescence, and confocal laser scanning microscopy) techniques was applied to analyze the abundance, composition, architecture, and three-dimensional structure of biofilm communities. The results of the study point out the unique role of Sphingomonas spp. in the initial formation and subsequent maturation of biofilms on the RO membrane and feed-side spacer surfaces. PMID:20190090

Separation of Peptides with Forward Osmosis Biomimetic Membranes

Science.gov (United States)

Bajraktari, Niada; Madsen, Henrik T.; Gruber, Mathias F.; Truelsen, Sigurd; Jensen, Elzbieta L.; Jensen, Henrik; Hélix-Nielsen, Claus

2016-01-01

Forward osmosis (FO) membranes have gained interest in several disciplines for the rejection and concentration of various molecules. One application area for FO membranes that is becoming increasingly popular is the use of the membranes to concentrate or dilute high value compound solutions such as pharmaceuticals. It is crucial in such settings to control the transport over the membrane to avoid losses of valuable compounds, but little is known about the rejection and transport mechanisms of larger biomolecules with often flexible conformations. In this study, transport of two chemically similar peptides with molecular weight (Mw) of 375 and 692 Da across a thin film composite Aquaporin Inside™ Membrane (AIM) FO membrane was investigated. Despite the relative large size, both peptides were able to permeate the dense active layer of the AIM membrane and the transport mechanism was determined to be diffusion-based. Interestingly, the membrane permeability increased 3.65 times for the 692 Da peptide (1.39 × 10−12 m2·s−1) compared to the 375 Da peptide (0.38 × 10−12 m2·s−1). This increase thus occurs for an 85% increase in Mw but only for a 34% increase in peptide radius of gyration (Rg) as determined from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This suggests that Rg is a strong influencing factor for membrane permeability. Thus, an increased Rg reflects the larger peptide chains ability to sample a larger conformational space when interacting with the nanostructured active layer increasing the likelihood for permeation. PMID:27854275

Quantitative biofouling diagnosis in full scale nanofiltration and reverse osmosis installations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vrouwenvelder, J.S.; Manolarakis, S.A.; van der Hoek, J.P.; van Paassen, J.A.M.; van der Meer, Walterus Gijsbertus Joseph; van Agtmaal, J.M.C.; Prummel, H.D.M.; Kruithof, J.C.; Loosdrecht, M.C.M.

2008-01-01

Biofilm accumulation in nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membrane elements results in a relative increase of normalised pressure drop (ΔNPD). However, an increase in ΔNPD is not exclusively linked to biofouling. In order to quantify biofouling, the biomass parameters adenosine triphosphate (ATP),

Highly efficient forward osmosis based on porous membranes--applications and implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Saren; Li, Ye; Zhao, Yang; Li, Weiyi; Tang, Chuyang Y

2015-04-07

For the first time, forward osmosis (FO) was performed using a porous membrane with an ultrafiltration (UF)-like rejection layer and its feasibility for high performance FO filtration was demonstrated. Compared to traditional FO membranes with dense rejection layers, the UF-like FO membrane was 2 orders of magnitude more permeable. This gave rise to respectable FO water flux even at ultralow osmotic driving force, for example, 7.6 L/m(2).h at an osmotic pressure of merely 0.11 bar (achieved by using a 0.1% poly(sodium 4-styrene-sulfonate) draw solution). The membrane was applied to oil/water separation, and a highly stable FO water flux was achieved. The adoption of porous FO membranes opens a door to many new opportunities, with potential applications ranging from wastewater treatment, valuable product recovery, and biomedical applications. The potential applications and implications of porous FO membranes are addressed in this paper.

A review of reverse osmosis membrane materials for desalination-Development to date and future potential

OpenAIRE

Lee, Kali Peng; Arnot, Tom C.; Mattia, Davide

2011-01-01

Reverse osmosis (RO) is currently the most important desalination technology and it is experiencing significant growth. The objective of this paper is to review the historical and current development of RO membrane materials which are the key determinants of separation performance and water productivity, and hence to define performance targets for those who are developing new RO membrane materials. The chemistry, synthesis mechanism(s) and desalination performance of various RO membranes are ...

Developing thin-film-composite forward osmosis membranes on the PES/SPSf substrate through interfacial polymerization

KAUST Repository

Wang, Kaiyu; Chung, Tai Shung Neal; Amy, Gary L.

2011-01-01

A new scheme has been developed to fabricate high-performance forward osmosis (FO) membranes through the interfacial polymerization reaction on porous polymeric supports. p-Phenylenediamine and 1,3,5-trimesoylchloride were adopted as the monomers

Study on concentrating treatment test of simulated radioactive wastewater containing boron by reverse osmosis membrane in PWR NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye Xinnan; Jiang Baihua; Fan Wenwen; Zhang Zhiyin; Yang Cangsheng

2015-01-01

The reverse osmosis membrane equipment in PWR NPP was employed to investigate the application of pilot scale system in the radioactive wastewater treatment at the full recirculation operation. The removal performance of the equipment for the boron and the radioactivity nuclide were studied, respectively. The experimental results show that the removal efficiency of the aromatic polyamide composite reverse osmosis membrane for boron is over 83.3% and the concentration of boron in concentrate is over 10000 mg/L. The experimental results also show that the removal efficiency of two nuclides including cobalt and cesium is over 97.9%. (authors)

Theory of Ion and Water Transport in Reverse-Osmosis Membranes

Science.gov (United States)

Oren, Y. S.; Biesheuvel, P. M.

2018-02-01

We present a theory for ion and water transport through reverse-osmosis (RO) membranes based on a Maxwell-Stefan framework combined with hydrodynamic theory for the reduced motion of particles in thin pores. We take into account all driving forces and frictions both on the fluid (water) and on the ions including ion-fluid friction and ion-wall friction. By including the acid-base characteristic of the carbonic acid system, the boric acid system, H3O+/OH- , and the membrane charge, we locally determine p H , the effective charge of the membrane, and the dissociation degree of carbonic acid and boric acid. We present calculation results for an experiment with fixed feed concentration, where effluent composition is a self-consistent function of fluxes through the membrane. A comparison with experimental results from literature for fluid flow vs pressure, and for salt and boron rejection, shows that our theory agrees very well with the available data. Our model is based on realistic assumptions for the effective size of the ions and makes use of a typical pore size of a commercial RO membrane.

Fouling of Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Membrane: Chemical and Microbiological Characterization

KAUST Repository

Khan, Muhammad T.

2013-12-01

In spite of abundant water resources, world is suffering from the scarcity of usable water. Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination technology using polymeric membranes has been recognized as a key solution to water scarcity problem. However, economic sustainability of this advanced technology is adversely impacted by the membrane fouling problem. Fouling of RO membranes is a highly studied phenomenon. However, literature is found to be lacking a detailed study on kinetic and dynamic aspects of SWRO membrane fouling. The factors that impact the fouling dynamics, i.e., pretreatment and water quality were also not adequately studied at full–scale of operation. Our experimental protocol was designed to systematically explore these fouling aspects with the objective to improve the understanding of SWRO membrane fouling mechanisms. An approach with multiple analytical techniques was developed for fouling characterization. In addition to the fouling layer characterization, feed water quality was also analysed to assess its fouling potential. Study of SWRO membrane fouling dynamics and kinetics revealed variations in relative abundance of chemical and microbial constituents of the fouling layer, over operating time. Aromatic substances, most likely humic–like substances, were observed at relatively high abundance in the initial fouling layer, followed by progressive increase in relative abundances of proteins and polysaccharides. Microbial population grown on all membranes was dominated by specific groups/species belonging to different classes of Proteobacteria phylum; however, similar to abiotic foulant, their relative abundance also changed with the biofilm age and with the position of membrane element in RO vessel. Our results demonstrated that source water quality can significantly impact the RO membrane fouling scenarios. Moreover, the major role of chlorination in the SWRO membrane fouling was highlighted. It was found that intermittent mode of chlorination

Fluoride Removal from Water by Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Namavar

2013-09-01

Full Text Available As fluoride concentration in drinking water is one of the effective parameters in human health, finding the way to remove excess amount of fluoride from drinking water is very important in water supply projects. Today, with developing in technology and finding new methods, the use of membrane technology for producing fresh water get improved. In this study the efficiency of reverse osmosis method to remove fluoride from water was investigated. Initial concentration of fluoride, sulfate and electrical conductivity in feed water and the effect of associated cation with fluoride ion were studied. All tests adapted from “Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater”. Determination of fluoride concentration was done according the standard SPANDS method by using a spectrophotometer DR/5000. Obtain results show that with increasing in concentration of fluoride and sulfate and electrical conductivity in feed water the efficiency of RO membrane to remove fluoride reduced. In addition, this efficiency for CaF2 was higher than NaF.

Membrane scaling and flux decline during fertiliser-drawn forward osmosis desalination of brackish groundwater.

Science.gov (United States)

Phuntsho, Sherub; Lotfi, Fezeh; Hong, Seungkwan; Shaffer, Devin L; Elimelech, Menachem; Shon, Ho Kyong

2014-06-15

Fertiliser-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) desalination has been recently studied as one feasible application of forward osmosis (FO) for irrigation. In this study, the potential of membrane scaling in the FDFO process has been investigated during the desalination of brackish groundwater (BGW). While most fertilisers containing monovalent ions did not result in any scaling when used as an FO draw solution (DS), diammonium phosphate (DAP or (NH4)2HPO4) resulted in significant scaling, which contributed to severe flux decline. Membrane autopsy using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that the reverse diffusion of DAP from the DS to the feed solution was primarily responsible for scale formation during the FDFO process. Physical cleaning of the membrane with deionised water at varying crossflow velocities was employed to evaluate the reversibility of membrane scaling and the extent of flux recovery. For the membrane scaled using DAP as DS, 80-90% of the original flux was recovered when the crossflow velocity for physical cleaning was the same as the crossflow velocity during FDFO desalination. However, when a higher crossflow velocity or Reynolds number was used, the flux was recovered almost completely, irrespective of the DS concentration used. This study underscores the importance of selecting a suitable fertiliser for FDFO desalination of brackish groundwater to avoid membrane scaling and severe flux decline. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Higher boron rejection with a new TFC forward osmosis membrane

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Li, Zhenyu; Sarp, Sarper; Park, Y. G.; Amy, Gary L.; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.

2014-01-01

Due to the stringent limits for boron in drinking and irrigation water, water treatment facilities have to incur additional treatment to remove boron down to a safe concentration. Forward osmosis (FO) is a membrane technology that may reduce the energy required to remove boron present in seawater. In direct FO desalination hybrid systems, fresh water is recovered from seawater using a recoverable draw solution, FO membranes are expected to show high boron rejection. This study focuses on determining the boron rejection capabilities of a new generation thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane compared to a first generation cellulose triacetate (CTA) FO membrane. The effects of water permeate flux, membrane structure, draw solute charge, and reverse solute flux on boron rejection were determined. For TFC and CTA FO membranes, experiments showed that when similar operating conditions are applied (e.g. membrane type and draw solute type) boron rejection decreases with increase in permeate flux. Reverse draw solute flux and membrane fouling have no significant impact on boron rejection. Compared to the first generation CTA FO membrane operated at the same conditions, the TFC FO membrane showed a 40% higher boron rejection capability and a 20% higher water flux. This demonstrates the potential for boron removal for new generation TFC FO membranes. © 2014 © 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.

Higher boron rejection with a new TFC forward osmosis membrane

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo

2014-07-17

Due to the stringent limits for boron in drinking and irrigation water, water treatment facilities have to incur additional treatment to remove boron down to a safe concentration. Forward osmosis (FO) is a membrane technology that may reduce the energy required to remove boron present in seawater. In direct FO desalination hybrid systems, fresh water is recovered from seawater using a recoverable draw solution, FO membranes are expected to show high boron rejection. This study focuses on determining the boron rejection capabilities of a new generation thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane compared to a first generation cellulose triacetate (CTA) FO membrane. The effects of water permeate flux, membrane structure, draw solute charge, and reverse solute flux on boron rejection were determined. For TFC and CTA FO membranes, experiments showed that when similar operating conditions are applied (e.g. membrane type and draw solute type) boron rejection decreases with increase in permeate flux. Reverse draw solute flux and membrane fouling have no significant impact on boron rejection. Compared to the first generation CTA FO membrane operated at the same conditions, the TFC FO membrane showed a 40% higher boron rejection capability and a 20% higher water flux. This demonstrates the potential for boron removal for new generation TFC FO membranes. © 2014 © 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.

Rotating Reverse-Osmosis for Water Purification

Science.gov (United States)

Lueptow, RIchard M.

2004-01-01

A new design for a water-filtering device combines rotating filtration with reverse osmosis to create a rotating reverse- osmosis system. Rotating filtration has been used for separating plasma from whole blood, while reverse osmosis has been used in purification of water and in some chemical processes. Reverse- osmosis membranes are vulnerable to concentration polarization a type of fouling in which the chemicals meant not to pass through the reverse-osmosis membranes accumulate very near the surfaces of the membranes. The combination of rotating filtration and reverse osmosis is intended to prevent concentration polarization and thereby increase the desired flux of filtered water while decreasing the likelihood of passage of undesired chemical species through the filter. Devices based on this concept could be useful in a variety of commercial applications, including purification and desalination of drinking water, purification of pharmaceutical process water, treatment of household and industrial wastewater, and treatment of industrial process water. A rotating filter consists of a cylindrical porous microfilter rotating within a stationary concentric cylindrical outer shell (see figure). The aqueous suspension enters one end of the annulus between the inner and outer cylinders. Filtrate passes through the rotating cylindrical microfilter and is removed via a hollow shaft. The concentrated suspension is removed at the end of the annulus opposite the end where the suspension entered.

Gypsum (CaSO42H2O) scaling on polybenzimidazole and cellulose acetate hollow fiber membranes under forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Chen, Si Cong; Su, Jincai; Fu, Feng-Jiang; Mi, Baoxia; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung

2013-01-01

We have examined the gypsum (CaSO42H2O) scaling phenomena on membranes with different physicochemical properties in forward osmosis (FO) processes. Three hollow fiber membranes made of (1) cellulose acetate (CA), (2) polybenzimidazole (PBI

Water Diffusion Mechanism in Carbon Nanotube and Polyamide Nanocomposite Reverse Osmosis Membranes: A Possible Percolation-Hopping Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Araki, Takumi; Cruz-Silva, Rodolfo; Tejima, Syogo; Ortiz-Medina, Josue; Morelos-Gomez, Aaron; Takeuchi, Kenji; Hayashi, Takuya; Terrones, Mauricio; Endo, Morinobu

2018-02-01

This paper is a contribution to the Physical Review Applied collection in memory of Mildred S. Dresselhaus. The mechanism of water diffusion across reverse osmosis nanocomposite membranes made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and aromatic polyamide is not completely understood despite its high potential for desalination applications. While most of the groups have proposed that superflow inside the CNT might positively impact the water flow across membranes, here we show theoretical evidence that this is not likely the case in composite membranes because CNTs are usually oriented parallel to the membrane surface, not to mention that sometimes the nanotube cores are occluded. Instead, we propose an oriented diffusion mechanism that explains the high water permeation by decreasing the diffusion path of water molecules across the membranes, even in the presence of CNTs that behave as impermeable objects. Finally, we provide a comprehensive description of the molecular dynamics occurring in water desalination membranes by considering the bond polarizability caused by dynamic charge transfer and explore the use of molecular-dynamics-derived stochastic diffusion simulations. The proposed water diffusion mechanism offers an alternative and most likely explanation for the high permeation phenomena observed in CNTs and PA nanocomposite membranes, and its understanding can be helpful to design the next generation of reverse osmosis desalination membranes.

Irradiation effects on properties of reverse osmosis membrane based on cross-linked aromatic polyamide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakase, Yoshiaki; Yanagi, Tadashi; Uemura, Tadahiro.

1994-01-01

In order to develop a membrane suitable for reverse osmotic condensation of radioactive liquid wastes, a new cross-linked aromatic polyamide composite reverse osmosis membrane (ROM) was irradiated in water or in wet system, and its mechanical and some thermal properties, and the separation performance for inorganic salt were investigated. A membrane was degraded by irradiation more severely in wet system than in dry system, probably due to the reaction with OH-radicals. In the separation performance for NaCl, the salt rejection of the membrane was kept over 88% until irradiation reached 2MGy, maintaining about 90% of its original water flux. (author)

Nuclide separation modeling through reverse osmosis membranes in radioactive liquid waste

OpenAIRE

Lee, Byung-Sik

2015-01-01

The aim of this work is to investigate the transport mechanism of radioactive nuclides through the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane and to estimate its effectiveness for nuclide separation from radioactive liquid waste. An analytical model is developed to simulate the RO separation, and a series of experiments are set up to confirm its estimated separation behavior. The model is based on the extended Nernst–Plank equation, which handles the convective flux, diffusive flux, and electromigration f...

Hexavalent Chromium Removal from Model Water and Car Shock Absorber Factory Effluent by Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amine Mnif

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis are investigated as a possible alternative to the conventional methods of Cr(VI removal from model water and industrial effluent. The influences of feed concentration, water recovery, pH, and the coexisting anions were studied. The results have shown that retention rates of hexavalent chromium can reach 99.7% using nanofiltration membrane (NF-HL and vary from 85 to 99.9% using reverse osmosis membrane (RO-SG depending upon the composition of the solution and operating conditions. This work was also extended to investigate the separation of Cr(VI from car shock absorber factory effluent. The use of these membranes is very promising for Cr(VI water treatment and desalting industry effluent. Spiegler-Kedem model was applied to experimental results in the aim to determine phenomenological parameters, the reflection coefficient of the membrane (σ, and the solute permeability coefficient (Ps. The convective and diffusive parts of the mass transfer were quantified with predominance of the diffusive contribution.

Study of the effectiveness of polyamide reverse osmosis membranes in the recovery of Cr(III) in tanning. Estudio sobre la efectividad de las membranas de osmosis inversa de poliamida en la recuperacion de Cr(III) en curticion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Galan, M.; Gonzalez, C.; Llorens, J.; Mans, C. (Barcelona Univ., Tarragona (Spain). Dept. d' Enginyeria Quimica i Bioqumica)

1992-12-01

Laboratory experiments on reverse osmosis using water containing Cr2(SO4)3 and a Film Tech Corporation TW30-2514 membrane are described. The type of cell employed allowed the membrane's rejection of Cr(III) to be measured with a high degree of accuracy. Tests were carried out varying the Cr concentration, the pressure and the temperature. The results obtained have implications regarding the suitability of reverse osmosis in recovering Cr from tanning waste water. (Author)

Recovery of uranium by a reverse osmosis process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cleary, J.G.; Stana, R.R.

1980-01-01

A method for concentrating and recovering uranium material from an aqueous solution, comprises passing a feed solution containing uranium through at least one reverse osmosis membrane system to concentrate the uranium, and then flushing the concentrated uranium solution with water in a reverse osmosis membrane system to further concentrate the uranium

Kinetic study of seawater reverse osmosis membrane fouling

KAUST Repository

Khan, Muhammad

2013-10-01

Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane fouling is not a static state but a dynamic phenomenon. The investigation of fouling kinetics and dynamics of change in the composition of the foulant mass is essential to elucidate the mechanism of fouling and foulant-foulant interactions. The aim of this work was to study at a lab scale the fouling process with an emphasis on the changes in the relative composition of foulant material as a function of operating time. Fouled membrane samples were collected at 8 h, and 1, 2, and 4 weeks on a lab-scale RO unit operated in recirculation mode. Foulant characterization was performed by CLSM, AFM, ATR-FTIR, pyrolysis GC-MS, and ICP-MS techniques. Moreover, measurement of active biomass and analysis of microbial diversity were performed by ATP analysis and DNA extraction, followed by pyro-sequencing, respectively. A progressive increase in the abundance of almost all the foulant species was observed, but their relative proportion changed over the age of the fouling layer. Microbial population in all the membrane samples was dominated by specific groups/species belonging to Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria phyla; however, similar to abiotic foulant, their relative abundance also changed with the biofilm age. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Thinning of reverse osmosis membranes by ionic liquids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meng, Hong, E-mail: menghong@mail.buct.edu.cn; Gong, Beibei; Geng, Tao; Li, Chunxi

2014-02-15

In this study, ionic liquids (ILs) were used to thin out the dense layer and, in turn, tune the surface properties and separation performance of commercial aromatic polyamide reverse osmosis membranes. It was observed that the structure of the ILs and dipping time had a strong impact on the dense layer thickness and morphology. This can be understood in terms of the dissolubility and interaction force between ILs and the organic membrane surface, such as hydrogen bonding and π–π interactions. Among the ILs synthesized, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl) showed the most promising thinning effects. It was observed that the thickness of the dense layer on the surface decreased from 127 to 67 nm after dipping treatment with [BMIM]Cl for 24 h. The water flux was enhanced by 20% at the expense of a slight decline of salt rejection. AFM, contact angle and zeta potential analyses suggest that the surface hydrophilicity and electronegativity increased, while the roughness decreased, which improved the anti-fouling properties.

Biofouling of reverse osmosis membranes: effects of cleaning on biofilm microbial communities, membrane performance, and adherence of extracellular polymeric substances.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Ashhab, Ashraf; Sweity, Amer; Bayramoglu, Bihter; Herzberg, Moshe; Gillor, Osnat

2017-05-01

Laboratory-scale reverse osmosis (RO) flat-sheet systems were used with two parallel flow cells, one treated with cleaning agents and a control (ie undisturbed). The cleaning efforts increased the affinity of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) to the RO membrane and altered the biofilm surface structure. Analysis of the membrane biofilm community composition revealed the dominance of Proteobacteria. However, within the phylum Proteobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria dominated the cleaned membrane biofilm, while β-Proteobacteria dominated the control biofilm. The composition of the fungal phyla was also altered by cleaning, with enhancement of Ascomycota and suppression of Basidiomycota. The results suggest that repeated cleaning cycles select for microbial groups that strongly attach to the RO membrane surface by producing rigid and adhesive EPS that hampers membrane performance.

Cell-element simulations to optimize the performance of osmotic processes in porous membranes

KAUST Repository

Calo, Victor M.; Iliev, Oleg; Nunes, Suzana Pereira; Printsypar, Galina; Shi, Meixia

2018-01-01

concerns the design of a cell element for the forward osmosis experiments. Using the developed software tool we qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the performance of a cell element that we designed for laboratory experiments of forward osmosis

Application of volume-retarded osmosis and low-pressure membrane hybrid process for water reclamation.

Science.gov (United States)

Im, Sung-Ju; Choi, Jungwon; Lee, Jung-Gil; Jeong, Sanghyun; Jang, Am

2018-03-01

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. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Application of volume-retarded osmosis and low-pressure membrane hybrid process for water reclamation

KAUST Repository

Im, Sung-Ju; Choi, Jungwon; Lee, Jung Gil; Jeong, Sanghyun; Jang, Am

2017-01-01

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.

Application of volume-retarded osmosis and low-pressure membrane hybrid process for water reclamation

KAUST Repository

Im, Sung-Ju

2017-11-15

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.

Chlorine-Resistant Polyamide Reverse Osmosis Membrane with Monitorable and Regenerative Sacrificial Layers.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Hai; Lin, Saisai; Zhang, Lin; Hou, Li'an

2017-03-22

Improving chlorine stability is a high priority for aromatic polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes especially in long-term desalination. In this Research Article, PA RO membranes of sustainable chlorine resistance was synthesized. Glycylglycine (Gly) was grafted onto the membrane surface as a regenerative chlorine sacrificial layer, and the zeta-potential was used to monitor the membrane performance and to conduct timely regeneration operations for chlorinated Gly. The Gly-grafted PA membrane exhibited ameliorative chlorine resistance in which the N-H moiety of glycylglycine served as sacrificial pendants against chlorine attacks. Cyclic chlorination experiments, combined with FT-IR and XPS analysis, were carried out to characterize the membrane. Results indicated that the resulting N-halamines could be fast regenerated by a simple alkaline reduction step (pH 10). A synchronous relationship between the zeta-potential and the chlorination extent of the sacrificial layer was observed. This indicated that the zeta-potential can be used as an on-site sensor to conduct a timely regeneration operation. The intrinsic mechanism of the surface sacrificial process was also studied.

Purification of Drinking Water from Fluorides by Reverse Osmosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksander A.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Introduction: An important task in the sphere of sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population of the Russian Federation is provision of drinking water. Tap water must not contain pathogenic bacteria and dangerous chemicals. Purification systems regulate the concentration of fluoride ions in drinking water. The aim of this paper is to study the possibility of purifying tap water from fluoride ions by reverse osmosis. Materials and Methods: We used the Alfa Laval PilotUnit 2.5 "RO/NF with a set of spiral-type membrane elements RO99-2517/48 to remove fluoride ions. We measured the concentration of fluoride ions by the potentiometric method using the Hanna HI 2211 (pH/mV/T. Fluoride-selective electrode ELIS 131 F was used as an indicator electrode and the standard chloride-silver electrode EVL-1M3 was used as a reference electrode. Both the calibration and buffer solutions were prepared from chemically pure reagents and A. R. purity for analysis reagents according to GOST 4386-89. Results: A single passage of water through the reverse osmosis membrane reduced the concentration of fluoride ions from 2.29 ± 0.02 to 0.240 ± 0.015 mg/l. Double passage of water reduced the concentration by a factor of two. As the concentration of fluoride ions increased in the retentate, the concentration in the filtrate slightly increased too. Purification of water reduced the concentration of fluoride ions from 20 mg/l, to 0.5 mg/l. Discussion and Conclusions: Thus, using the Alfa Laval PilotUnit 2.5" RO/NF with a set of spiral-type membrane elements RO99-2517/48 filters tap water of ions of fluoride to the maximum allowable concentration. This study opens the perspective of using reverse osmosis to purify tap water with high concentration of fluoride ions.

Fouling Characterization of Forward Osmosis Biomimetic Aquaporin Membranes Used for Water Recovery from Municipal Wastewater

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zarebska, Agata; Petrinic, Irena; Hey, Tobias

, organic, and biological fouling, membrane characterization is not a trivial task. The aim of this work is to characterize fouling of FO biomimetic aquaporin membranes during water recovery from municipal wastewater. Membrane fouling was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Dispersive......Generally more than 99.93% of municipal wastewater is composed of water, therefore water recovery can alleviate global water stress which currently exists. Traditional ways to extract water from wastewater by the use of membrane bioreactors combined with reverse osmosis (RO), or micro...... compared to other pressure driven membrane processes, some fouling can occur. This entails that by reducing fouling, increased FO membrane performance can be expected, thus increasing the economic viability of FO processes. Since various types of fouling might occur in membrane systems such as inorganic...

Surface modification of reverse osmosis desalination membranes by thin-film coatings deposited by initiated chemical vapor deposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ozaydin-Ince, Gozde, E-mail: gozdeince@sabanciuniv.edu [Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Matin, Asif, E-mail: amatin@mit.edu [Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261 (Saudi Arabia); Khan, Zafarullah, E-mail: zukhan@mit.edu [Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261 (Saudi Arabia); Zaidi, S.M. Javaid, E-mail: zaidismj@kfupm.edu.sa [Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261 (Saudi Arabia); Gleason, Karen K., E-mail: kkgleasn@mit.edu [Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

2013-07-31

Thin-film polymeric reverse osmosis membranes, due to their high permeation rates and good salt rejection capabilities, are widely used for seawater desalination. However, these membranes are prone to biofouling, which affects their performance and efficiency. In this work, we report a method to modify the membrane surface without damaging the active layer or significantly affecting the performance of the membrane. Amphiphilic copolymer films of hydrophilic hydroxyethylmethacrylate and hydrophobic perfluorodecylacrylate (PFA) were synthesized and deposited on commercial RO membranes using an initiated chemical vapor deposition technique which is a polymer deposition technique that involves free-radical polymerization initiated by gas-phase radicals. Relevant surface characteristics such as hydrophilicity and roughness could be systematically controlled by varying the polymer chemistry. Increasing the hydrophobic PFA content in the films leads to an increase in the surface roughness and hydrophobicity. Furthermore, the surface morphology studies performed using the atomic force microscopy show that as the thickness of the coating increases average surface roughness increases. Using this knowledge, the coating thickness and chemistry were optimized to achieve high permeate flux and to reduce cell attachment. Results of the static bacterial adhesion tests show that the attachment of bacterial cells is significantly reduced on the coated membranes. - Highlights: • Thin films are deposited on reverse osmosis membranes. • Amphiphilic thin films are resistant to protein attachment. • The permeation performance of the membranes is not affected by the coating. • The thin film coatings delayed the biofouling.

Methodological approaches to conducting pilot and proof tests on reverse-osmosis systems: Results of comparative studies

Science.gov (United States)

Panteleev, A. A.; Bobinkin, V. V.; Larionov, S. Yu.; Ryabchikov, B. E.; Smirnov, V. B.; Shapovalov, D. A.

2017-10-01

When designing large-scale water-treatment plants based on reverse-osmosis systems, it is proposed to conduct experimental-industrial or pilot tests for validated simulation of the operation of the equipment. It is shown that such tests allow establishing efficient operating conditions and characteristics of the plant under design. It is proposed to conduct pilot tests of the reverse-osmosis systems on pilot membrane plants (PMPs) and test membrane plants (TMPs). The results of a comparative experimental study of pilot and test membrane plants are exemplified by simulating the operating parameters of the membrane elements of an industrial plant. It is concluded that the reliability of the data obtained on the TMP may not be sufficient to design industrial water-treatment plants, while the PMPs are capable of providing reliable data that can be used for full-scale simulation of the operation of industrial reverse-osmosis systems. The test membrane plants allow simulation of the operating conditions of individual industrial plant systems; therefore, potential areas of their application are shown. A method for numerical calculation and experimental determination of the true selectivity and the salt passage are proposed. An expression has been derived that describes the functional dependence between the observed and true salt passage. The results of the experiments conducted on a test membrane plant to determine the true value of the salt passage of a reverse-osmosis membrane are exemplified by magnesium sulfate solution at different initial operating parameters. It is shown that the initial content of a particular solution component has a significant effect on the change in the true salt passage of the membrane.

High-performance multi-functional reverse osmosis membranes obtained by carbon nanotube·polyamide nanocomposite

Science.gov (United States)

Inukai, Shigeki; Cruz-Silva, Rodolfo; Ortiz-Medina, Josue; Morelos-Gomez, Aaron; Takeuchi, Kenji; Hayashi, Takuya; Tanioka, Akihiko; Araki, Takumi; Tejima, Syogo; Noguchi, Toru; Terrones, Mauricio; Endo, Morinobu

2015-01-01

Clean water obtained by desalinating sea water or by purifying wastewater, constitutes a major technological objective in the so-called water century. In this work, a high-performance reverse osmosis (RO) composite thin membrane using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and aromatic polyamide (PA), was successfully prepared by interfacial polymerization. The effect of MWCNT on the chlorine resistance, antifouling and desalination performances of the nanocomposite membranes were studied. We found that a suitable amount of MWCNT in PA, 15.5 wt.%, not only improves the membrane performance in terms of flow and antifouling, but also inhibits the chlorine degradation on these membranes. Therefore, the present results clearly establish a solid foundation towards more efficient large-scale water desalination and other water treatment processes. PMID:26333385

Selection of suitable fertilizer draw solute for a novel fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis-anaerobic membrane bioreactor hybrid system

KAUST Repository

Kim, Youngjin; Chekli, Laura; Shim, Wang-Geun; Phuntsho, Sherub; Li, Sheng; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Leiknes, TorOve; Shon, Ho Kyong

2016-01-01

In this study, a protocol for selecting suitable fertilizer draw solute for anaerobic fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (AnFDFOMBR) was proposed. Among eleven commercial fertilizer candidates, six fertilizers were screened further

An experiment with spiral wound reverse osmosis membranes for the Desalination of seawater

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.N.A. Hawlader Hawlader,

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In the research, the performance characteristics of Reverse Osmosis (RO Spiral Wound (SW membrane are evaluated. The effects of feed water concentration, temperature, pressure and flow rate on the performance of this membrane are investigated. The product recovery ( of SW membrane is found to increase with feed water temperature and pressure, but decrease with increasing feed water concentration and flow rate. Salt passage (SP increases with feed water temperature and concentration, but decreases with increasing feed pressure and flow rate. Under the tested feed water conditions, of SW varies from 6% - 18% and permeate salinity is approximately 130ppm. In addition, validity of the Complete Mixing Model is verified and successfully extended to the derivation of water and salt transport parameters of SW membrane. Plots of I/SR' versus l/Jw display linear relationships, as predicted in the model.

A novel TFC forward osmosis (FO) membrane supported by polyimide (PI) microporous nanofiber membrane

Science.gov (United States)

Chi, Xiang-Yu; Zhang, Ping-Yun; Guo, Xue-Jiao; Xu, Zhen-Liang

2018-01-01

A novel interfacial polymerization (IP) procedure on polyimide (PI) microporous nanofiber membrane support with mean pore size 1.27 μm was reported. Using m-phenylenediamine (MPD) as aqueous phase monomer, trimesoyl chloride (TMC) as organic phase monomer, ethanol as aqueous phase co-solvent, thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membrane was fabricated by two IP procedures. The first IP procedure with the unconventional order (ie, the membrane was immersed in the TMC organic phase first, then in the co-solvent ethanol-water MPD aqueous phase) was used to diminish the pore size of PI microporous nanofiber membrane support for the formation of the polyamide layer. The secondary IP procedure was employed to form the relatively dense polyamide layer with conventional order (ie, the membrane was immersed in the co-solvent ethanol-water MPD aqueous phase first, then in the TMC organic phase). The experimental results showed that higher ethanol concentration led to the relatively higher pure water permeability in RO process and osmotic water flux in FO process, whereas NaCl rejection in RO process decreased and reverse salt flux increased. The specific salt flux (Js/Jv) of TFC FO PI nanofiber membrane (PIN-2-4) could be as low as 0.095 g/L in FO mode. These results could be attributed to influence of the addition of ethanol into aqueous phase on the surface morphology, hydrophilicity and polyamide layer structure.

Membrane morphology and topology for fouling control in Reverse Osmosis filtration systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, Bowen; Battiato, Ilenia

2017-11-01

Reverse Osmosis Membrane (ROM) filtration systems are widely utilized in waste-water recovery, seawater desalination, landfill water treatment, etc. During filtration, the system performance is dramatically affected by membrane fouling which causes a significant decrease in permeate flux as well as an increase in the energy input required to operate the system. Design and optimization of ROM filtration systems aim at reducing membrane fouling by studying the coupling between membrane structure, local flow field and foulant adsorption patterns. Yet, current studies focus exclusively on oversimplified steady-state models that ignore any dynamic coupling between fluid flow and transport through the membrane. In this work, we develop a customized solver (SUMembraneFoam) under OpenFOAM to solve the transient equations. The simulation results not only predict macroscopic quantities (e.g. permeate flux, pressure drop, etc.) but also show an excellent agreement with the fouling patterns observed in experiments. It is observed that foulant deposition is strongly controlled by the local shear stress on the membrane, and channel morphology or membrane topology can be modified to control the shear stress distribution and reduce fouling. Finally, we identify optimal regimes for design.

Development of ultra-low pressure reverse osmosis membranes; Choteiatsu gyakushintomaku no kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hirose, M.; Ito, H.; Ohara, T. [Nitto Denko Corp., Osaka (Japan)

1998-06-05

Described herein is development of ultra-low pressure reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The composite RO membrane, which is now widely used, has a cross-sectional structure consisting of an ultrafilter membrane as the support and a very thin skin layer responsible for filtration. It is confirmed that the skin layer is of a pleated structure. Growing this structure can greatly accelerate permeation of water without damaging arresting and durability characteristics of the membrane, and hence is a desired approach. Utilization of molecular structure simulation of the skin layer materials is investigated by the molecular dynamics. The results show that the stable structure of the material for the skin layer in the RO membrane is a network structure with regularly arranged honeycombs, when it should arrest at least 99% of salt. These techniques serve as the bases for development of the ultra-low pressure RO membranes (ES Series), where the skin layer is made of cross-linked, totally aromatic polyamide. The membrane passes twice as large a quantity of water as the conventional one, is highly resistant to chemicals, and arrests 99.7% of salt. 3 refs., 4 figs.

Using nanocomposite materials technology to understand and control reverse osmosis membrane compaction

KAUST Repository

Pendergast, Mary Theresa M.; Nygaard, Jodie M.; Ghosh, Asim K.; Hoek, Eric M.V.

2010-01-01

Composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were formed by interfacial polymerization of polyamide thin films over pure polysulfone and nanocomposite-polysulfone support membranes. Nanocomposite support membranes were formed from amorphous non-porous silica and crystalline microporous zeolite nanoparticles. For each hand-cast membrane, water flux and NaCl rejection were monitored over time at two different applied pressures. Nanocomposite-polysulfone supported RO membranes generally had higher initial permeability and experienced less flux decline due to compaction than pure polysulfone supported membranes. In addition, observed salt rejection tended to increase as flux declined from compaction. Crosssectional SEM images verified significant reduction in thickness of pure polysulfone supports, whereas nanocomposites better resisted compaction due to enhanced mechanical stability imparted by the nanoparticles. A conceptual model was proposed to explain the mechanistic relationship between support membrane compaction and observed changes in water flux and salt rejection. As the support membrane compacts, skin layer pore constriction increased the effective path length for diffusion through the composite membranes, which reduced both water and salt permeability identically. However, experimental salt permeability tended to decline to a greater extent than water permeability; hence, the observed changes in flux and rejection might also be related to structural changes in the polyamide thin film. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using nanocomposite materials technology to understand and control reverse osmosis membrane compaction

KAUST Repository

Pendergast, Mary Theresa M.

2010-10-01

Composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were formed by interfacial polymerization of polyamide thin films over pure polysulfone and nanocomposite-polysulfone support membranes. Nanocomposite support membranes were formed from amorphous non-porous silica and crystalline microporous zeolite nanoparticles. For each hand-cast membrane, water flux and NaCl rejection were monitored over time at two different applied pressures. Nanocomposite-polysulfone supported RO membranes generally had higher initial permeability and experienced less flux decline due to compaction than pure polysulfone supported membranes. In addition, observed salt rejection tended to increase as flux declined from compaction. Crosssectional SEM images verified significant reduction in thickness of pure polysulfone supports, whereas nanocomposites better resisted compaction due to enhanced mechanical stability imparted by the nanoparticles. A conceptual model was proposed to explain the mechanistic relationship between support membrane compaction and observed changes in water flux and salt rejection. As the support membrane compacts, skin layer pore constriction increased the effective path length for diffusion through the composite membranes, which reduced both water and salt permeability identically. However, experimental salt permeability tended to decline to a greater extent than water permeability; hence, the observed changes in flux and rejection might also be related to structural changes in the polyamide thin film. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Highly Hydrophilic Thin-Film Composite Forward Osmosis Membranes Functionalized with Surface-Tailored Nanoparticles

KAUST Repository

Tiraferri, Alberto

2012-09-26

Thin-film composite polyamide membranes are state-of-the-art materials for membrane-based water purification and desalination processes, which require both high rejection of contaminants and high water permeabilities. However, these membranes are prone to fouling when processing natural waters and wastewaters, because of the inherent surface physicochemical properties of polyamides. The present work demonstrates the fabrication of forward osmosis polyamide membranes with optimized surface properties via facile and scalable functionalization with fine-tuned nanoparticles. Silica nanoparticles are coated with superhydrophilic ligands possessing functional groups that impart stability to the nanoparticles and bind irreversibly to the native carboxyl moieties on the membrane selective layer. The tightly tethered layer of nanoparticles tailors the surface chemistry of the novel composite membrane without altering the morphology or water/solute permeabilities of the membrane selective layer. Surface characterization and interfacial energy analysis confirm that highly hydrophilic and wettable membrane surfaces are successfully attained. Lower intermolecular adhesion forces are measured between the new membrane materials and model organic foulants, indicating the presence of a bound hydration layer at the polyamide membrane surface that creates a barrier for foulant adhesion. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

Life cycle cost of a hybrid forward osmosis - low pressure reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination and wastewater recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Valladares Linares, R; Li, Z; Yangali-Quintanilla, V; Ghaffour, N; Amy, G; Leiknes, T; Vrouwenvelder, J S

2016-01-01

In recent years, forward osmosis (FO) hybrid membrane systems have been investigated as an alternative to conventional high-pressure membrane processes (i.e. reverse osmosis (RO)) for seawater desalination and wastewater treatment and recovery. Nevertheless, their economic advantage in comparison to conventional processes for seawater desalination and municipal wastewater treatment has not been clearly addressed. This work presents a detailed economic analysis on capital and operational expenses (CAPEX and OPEX) for: i) a hybrid forward osmosis - low-pressure reverse osmosis (FO-LPRO) process, ii) a conventional seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination process, and iii) a membrane bioreactor - reverse osmosis - advanced oxidation process (MBR-RO-AOP) for wastewater treatment and reuse. The most important variables affecting economic feasibility are obtained through a sensitivity analysis of a hybrid FO-LPRO system. The main parameters taken into account for the life cycle costs are the water quality characteristics (similar feed water and similar water produced), production capacity of 100,000 m(3) d(-1) of potable water, energy consumption, materials, maintenance, operation, RO and FO module costs, and chemicals. Compared to SWRO, the FO-LPRO systems have a 21% higher CAPEX and a 56% lower OPEX due to savings in energy consumption and fouling control. In terms of the total water cost per cubic meter of water produced, the hybrid FO-LPRO desalination system has a 16% cost reduction compared to the benchmark for desalination, mainly SWRO. Compared to the MBR-RO-AOP, the FO-LPRO systems have a 7% lower CAPEX and 9% higher OPEX, resulting in no significant cost reduction per m(3) produced by FO-LPRO. Hybrid FO-LPRO membrane systems are shown to have an economic advantage compared to current available technology for desalination, and comparable costs with a wastewater treatment and recovery system. Based on development on FO membrane modules, packing density, and

Reverse osmosis desalination of chitosan cross-linked graphene oxide/titania hybrid lamellar membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Hui; Sun, Penzhan; Zhang, Yingjiu; Zhu, Hongwei

2016-07-08

With excellent mass transport properties, graphene oxide (GO)-based lamellar membranes are believed to have great potential in water desalination. In order to quantify whether GO-based membranes are indeed suitable for reverse osmosis (RO) desalination, three sub-micrometer thick GO-based lamellar membranes: GO-only, reduced GO (RGO)/titania (TO) nanosheets and RGO/TO/chitosan (CTS) are prepared, and their RO desalination performances are evaluated in a home-made RO test apparatus. The photoreduction of GO by TO improves the salt rejection, which increases slowly with the membrane thickness. The RGO/TO/CTS hybrid membranes exhibit higher rejection rates of only about 30% (greater than threefold improvement compared with a GO-only membrane) which is still inferior compared to other commercial RO membranes. The low rejection rates mainly arise from the pressure-induced weakening of the ion-GO interlayer interactions. Despite the advantages of simple, low-cost preparation, high permeability and selectivity of GO-based lamellar membranes, as the current desalination performances are not high enough to afford practical application, there still remains a great challenge to realize high performance separation membranes for water desalination applications.

Comparison of biofouling mechanisms between cellulose triacetate (CTA) and thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide forward osmosis membranes in osmotic membrane bioreactors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xinhua; Zhao, Yanxiao; Yuan, Bo; Wang, Zhiwei; Li, Xiufen; Ren, Yueping

2016-02-01

There are two types of popular forward osmosis (FO) membrane materials applied for researches on FO process, cellulose triacetate (CTA) and thin film composite (TFC) polyamide. However, performance and fouling mechanisms of commercial TFC FO membrane in osmotic membrane bioreactors (OMBRs) are still unknown. In current study, its biofouling behaviors in OMBRs were investigated and further compared to the CTA FO membrane. The results indicated that β-D-glucopyranose polysaccharides and microorganisms accounted for approximately 77% of total biovolume on the CTA FO membrane while β-D-glucopyranose polysaccharides (biovolume ratio of 81.1%) were the only dominant biofoulants on the TFC FO membrane. The analyses on the biofouling structure implied that a tighter biofouling layer with a larger biovolume was formed on the CTA FO membrane. The differences in biofouling behaviors including biofoulants composition and biofouling structure between CTA and TFC FO membranes were attributed to different membrane surface properties. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Membrane distillation for wastewater reverse osmosis concentrate treatment with water reuse potential

KAUST Repository

Naidu, Gayathri; Jeong, Sanghyun; Choi, Youngkwon; Vigneswaran, Saravanamuthu

2016-01-01

Membrane distillation (MD) was evaluated as a treatment option of wastewater reverse osmosis concentrate (WWROC) discharged from wastewater reclamation plants (WRPs). A direct contact MD (DCMD), at obtaining 85% water recovery of WWROC showed only 13–15% flux decline and produced good quality permeate (10–15 µS/cm, 99% ion rejection) at moderate feed temperature of 55 °C. Prevalent calcium carbonate (CaCO3) deposition on the MD membrane occurred in treating WWROC at elevated concentrations. The combination of low salinity and loose CaCO3 adhesion on the membrane did not significantly contribute to DCMD flux decline. Meanwhile, high organic content in WWROC (58–60 mg/L) resulted in a significant membrane hydrophobicity reduction (70% lower water contact angle than virgin membrane) attributed to low molecular weight organic adhesion onto the MD membrane. Granular activated carbon (GAC) pretreatment helped in reducing organic contents of WWROC by 46–50%, and adsorbed a range of hydrophobic and hydrophilic micropollutants. This ensured high quality water production by MD (micropollutants-free) and enhanced its reuse potential. The MD concentrated WWROC was suitable for selective ion precipitation, promising a near zero liquid discharge in WRPs.

Membrane distillation for wastewater reverse osmosis concentrate treatment with water reuse potential

KAUST Repository

Naidu, Gayathri

2016-11-29

Membrane distillation (MD) was evaluated as a treatment option of wastewater reverse osmosis concentrate (WWROC) discharged from wastewater reclamation plants (WRPs). A direct contact MD (DCMD), at obtaining 85% water recovery of WWROC showed only 13–15% flux decline and produced good quality permeate (10–15 µS/cm, 99% ion rejection) at moderate feed temperature of 55 °C. Prevalent calcium carbonate (CaCO3) deposition on the MD membrane occurred in treating WWROC at elevated concentrations. The combination of low salinity and loose CaCO3 adhesion on the membrane did not significantly contribute to DCMD flux decline. Meanwhile, high organic content in WWROC (58–60 mg/L) resulted in a significant membrane hydrophobicity reduction (70% lower water contact angle than virgin membrane) attributed to low molecular weight organic adhesion onto the MD membrane. Granular activated carbon (GAC) pretreatment helped in reducing organic contents of WWROC by 46–50%, and adsorbed a range of hydrophobic and hydrophilic micropollutants. This ensured high quality water production by MD (micropollutants-free) and enhanced its reuse potential. The MD concentrated WWROC was suitable for selective ion precipitation, promising a near zero liquid discharge in WRPs.

The use of microbial and chemical analyses to characterize the variations in fouling profile of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membrane

KAUST Repository

Manes, Carmem Lara De O

2013-01-01

Biofouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is one of the most common problems in desalinations plants reducing the efficiency of the water production process. The characterization of bacterial community composition from fouling layers as well as detailed analysis of surrounding chemical environment might reveal process specific bacterial groups/species that are involved in RO biofouling. In this study, advanced organics analytic methods (elemental analysis, FTIR, and ICP-OES) were combined with high-throughput 16S rRNA (pyro) sequencing to assess in parallel, the chemical properties and the active microbial community composition of SWRO membranes from a pilot desalination plant (MFT, Tarragona) in February 2011 and July 2011. Prefiltered ultrafiltration. waters fed SWRO membranes during third and fifth month of operation, respectively. SWRO samples were taken from three modules at different positions (first, fourth, and sixth) in order to investigate the spatial changes in fouling layers\\' chemical and microbiological composition. The overall assessment of chemical parameters revealed that fouling layers were mainly composed by bio and organic material (proteins and lipids). Ca and Fe were found to be the most abundant elements having an increasing concentration gradient according to the module position. Bacterial community composition of SWRO membranes is mostly represented by the Gammaproteobacteria class with interesting differences in genera/species spatial and temporal distribution. This preliminary result suggests that pretreatments and/or operational conditions might have selected different bacterial groups more adapted to colonize SWRO membranes. © 2013 Desalination Publications.

Heavy metal removal using reverse osmosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Gajdošová

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work was to study reverse osmosis characteristics for copper, nickel and zinc removal from technological aqueoussolutions. Reverse osmosis (RO is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solution through a membrane that retainsthe solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side. A polyamide thin-film composite membrane TW30-1812-50was used. The difference in flux decline is significant. There is a significant difference in flux decline depending on the anions of usedheavy metal salts. The heavy metal concentration also has a significant influence on the membrane separation. There is alsoa significant difference in flux decline depending on the transmembrane pressure.

Life cycle cost of a hybrid forward osmosis – low pressure reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination and wastewater recovery

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo

2015-10-19

In recent years, forward osmosis (FO) hybrid membrane systems have been investigated as an alternative to conventional high-pressure membrane processes (i.e. reverse osmosis (RO)) for seawater desalination and wastewater treatment and recovery. Nevertheless, their economic advantage in comparison to conventional processes for seawater desalination and municipal wastewater treatment has not been clearly addressed. This work presents a detailed economic analysis on capital and operational expenses (CAPEX and OPEX) for: i) a hybrid forward osmosis – low-pressure reverse osmosis (FO-LPRO) process, ii) a conventional seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination process, and iii) a membrane bioreactor – reverse osmosis – advanced oxidation process (MBR-RO-AOP) for wastewater treatment and reuse. The most important variables affecting economic feasibility are obtained through a sensitivity analysis of a hybrid FO-LPRO system. The main parameters taken into account for the life cycle costs are the water quality characteristics (similar feed water and similar water produced), production capacity of 100,000 m3 d−1 of potable water, energy consumption, materials, maintenance, operation, RO and FO module costs, and chemicals. Compared to SWRO, the FO-LPRO systems have a 21% higher CAPEX and a 56% lower OPEX due to savings in energy consumption and fouling control. In terms of the total water cost per cubic meter of water produced, the hybrid FO-LPRO desalination system has a 16% cost reduction compared to the benchmark for desalination, mainly SWRO. Compared to the MBR-RO-AOP, the FO-LPRO systems have a 7% lower CAPEX and 9% higher OPEX, resulting in no significant cost reduction per m3 produced by FO-LPRO. Hybrid FO-LPRO membrane systems are shown to have an economic advantage compared to current available technology for desalination, and comparable costs with a wastewater treatment and recovery system. Based on development on FO membrane modules, packing density, and

Coating of reverse osmosis membranes with amphiphilic copolymers for biofouling control

KAUST Repository

Bucs, Szilard

2017-05-30

Surface coating of membranes may be a promising option to control biofilm development and biofouling impact on membrane performance of spiral-wound reverse osmosis (RO) systems. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of an amphiphilic copolymer coating on biofilm formation and biofouling control. The coating was composed of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomers hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFA), respectively. Commercial RO membranes were coated with HEMA-PFA copolymer film. Long and short term biofouling studies with coated and uncoated membranes and feed spacer were performed using membrane fouling simulators (MFSs) operated in parallel, fed with water containing nutrients. For the long-term studies pressure drop development in time was monitored and after eight days the MFSs were opened and the accumulated biofilm on the membrane and spacer sheets was quantified and characterized. The presence of the membrane coating was determined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Results showed that the amphiphilic coating (i) delayed biofouling (a lower pressure drop increase by a factor of 3 and a lower accumulated active biomass amount by a factor of 6), (ii) influenced the biofilm composition (23% lower polysaccharides and 132% higher protein content) and (iii) was still completely present on the membrane at the end of the biofouling study, showing that the coating was strongly attached to the membrane surface. Using coated membranes and feed spacers in combination with advanced cleaning strategies may be a suitable way to control biofouling.

Coating of reverse osmosis membranes with amphiphilic copolymers for biofouling control

KAUST Repository

Bucs, Szilard; Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Siddiqui, Amber; Matin, Asif; Khan, Zafarullah; van Loosdrecht, Mark C.M.; Yang, Rong; Wang, Minghui; Gleason, Karen K.; Kruithof, Joop C.; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.

2017-01-01

Surface coating of membranes may be a promising option to control biofilm development and biofouling impact on membrane performance of spiral-wound reverse osmosis (RO) systems. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of an amphiphilic copolymer coating on biofilm formation and biofouling control. The coating was composed of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomers hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFA), respectively. Commercial RO membranes were coated with HEMA-PFA copolymer film. Long and short term biofouling studies with coated and uncoated membranes and feed spacer were performed using membrane fouling simulators (MFSs) operated in parallel, fed with water containing nutrients. For the long-term studies pressure drop development in time was monitored and after eight days the MFSs were opened and the accumulated biofilm on the membrane and spacer sheets was quantified and characterized. The presence of the membrane coating was determined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Results showed that the amphiphilic coating (i) delayed biofouling (a lower pressure drop increase by a factor of 3 and a lower accumulated active biomass amount by a factor of 6), (ii) influenced the biofilm composition (23% lower polysaccharides and 132% higher protein content) and (iii) was still completely present on the membrane at the end of the biofouling study, showing that the coating was strongly attached to the membrane surface. Using coated membranes and feed spacers in combination with advanced cleaning strategies may be a suitable way to control biofouling.

Integrating Microbial Electrochemical Technology with Forward Osmosis and Membrane Bioreactors: Low-Energy Wastewater Treatment, Energy Recovery and Water Reuse

KAUST Repository

Werner, Craig M.

2014-06-01

Wastewater treatment is energy intensive, with modern wastewater treatment processes consuming 0.6 kWh/m3 of water treated, half of which is required for aeration. Considering that wastewater contains approximately 2 kWh/m3 of energy and represents a reliable alternative water resource, capturing part of this energy and reclaiming the water would offset or even eliminate energy requirements for wastewater treatment and provide a means to augment traditional water supplies. Microbial electrochemical technology is a novel technology platform that uses bacteria capable of producing an electric current outside of the cell to recover energy from wastewater. These bacteria do not require oxygen to respire but instead use an insoluble electrode as their terminal electron acceptor. Two types of microbial electrochemical technologies were investigated in this dissertation: 1) a microbial fuel cell that produces electricity; and 2) a microbial electrolysis cell that produces hydrogen with the addition of external power. On their own, microbial electrochemical technologies do not achieve sufficiently high treatment levels. Innovative approaches that integrate microbial electrochemical technologies with emerging and established membrane-based treatment processes may improve the overall extent of wastewater treatment and reclaim treated water. Forward osmosis is an emerging low-energy membrane-based technology for seawater desalination. In forward osmosis water is transported across a semipermeable membrane driven by an osmotic gradient. The microbial osmotic fuel cell described in this dissertation integrates a microbial fuel cell with forward osmosis to achieve wastewater treatment, energy recovery and partial desalination. This system required no aeration and generated more power than conventional microbial fuel cells using ion exchange membranes by minimizing electrochemical losses. Membrane bioreactors incorporate semipermeable membranes within a biological wastewater

Application of ceramic membranes for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) pre-treatment

KAUST Repository

Hamad, Juma

2013-05-30

Low-pressure (microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF)) membranes are being increasingly used as pre-treatment, prior to seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). The objective of pre-treatment before reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is to remove undesirable and particulate fouling materials (algae, suspended and colloidal particles). Also, a pre-treatment barrier reduces organics and provides better feed water quality for RO membranes. MF and UF pre-treatment prior to SWRO provides Low Silt Density Index (SDI) values recommended for RO operation. Ceramic membranes are more attractive as they made of more chemically resistant materials, which allow for more stable operation and aggressive backwashing (BW) and cleaning. A pilot plant with a monolith ceramic MF membrane (0.1 μm pore size) from METAWATER was used to carry out the study. Red Sea water pumped from a distance of 700 m offshore from Thuwal (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was used as feed water. The pilot plant was operated automatically at constant flux of 150 LMH that involved BW, air flushing and forward flushing at the end of filtration cycle. Seawater permeates were used for hydraulic BW, while sodium hypochlorite, citric acid and sodium hydroxide were used for chemical cleaning (CIP) to restore the membrane permeability after use. Filtration cycles of 2.5 h were adopted for initial experiments. Aggressive BW flux of 1,800 LMH for 15 s, air flushing of 4 bars for 10 s and forward flushing of 300 LMH for 40 s were applied for regular membrane hydraulic cleaning. The increase of membrane resistances over time was monitored. Further studies were also performed by using Anopore ceramic membranes AAO100 (pore sizes of 0.1 μm) using a constant pressure bench-scale set-up. The feed water and permeate were analysed using an SDI unit, flow cytometre (FCM) and liquid chromatography with organic carbon detection (LC-OCD). The results showed that ceramic membrane filtration reduced the SDI15 of seawater from 6.1 to 2.1 which

Spontaneous direct and reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valitov, N.Kh.

1996-01-01

It has been ascertained experimentally that in the course of separation of CsCl, KCl, NaCl aqueous solutions by semi-permeable membrane from distilled water the direct and then reverse osmosis are observed. The same sequence is observed in case of separation of CsCl aqueous solutions from NaCl of different concentrations. The reason for the direct and reverse osmosis has been explained. 5 refs.; 3 figs. 1 tab

Removal of radionuclides from liquid streams by reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deshmukh, U.A.; Ramachandhran, V.; Misra, B.M.

1987-01-01

Separation of radionuclides in trace concentrations by cellulose acetate membranes has been under investigation in this laboratory, and the behaviour of some important radionuclides such as 137 Cs and 90 Sr under reverse osmosis has been reported earlier. The present work deals with a few other typical radionuclides such as 60 Co, 103 Ru and 131 I which are not fully amenable to conventional methods for their removal. Separation of these radionuclides from liquid streams by the reverse osmosis process was studied using a small reverse osmosis test cell. Various parameters like membrane porosity, applied pressure and feed activity levels were investigated. Cellulose acetate membranes offer reasonable separation of 60 Co, 103 Ru and 131 I radionuclides, indicating the potential of reverse osmosis for treatment of effluents containing these radioisotopes. The percent separation is found to be in the order of Co > Ru > I. The percent radioactive separation improves with increases in feed activity. The performance data are explained in terms of solution-diffusion mechanism. It appears that the separation of radionuclides is not governed by diffusion alone, but by the interaction of solutes with the membranes. (author)

Tertiary wastewater treatment in membrane photobioreactor using microalgae: Comparison of forward osmosis & microfiltration.

Science.gov (United States)

Praveen, Prashant; Heng, Jonathan Yun Ping; Loh, Kai-Chee

2016-12-01

Discharge of wastewater with high nitrogen and phosphorus content is a major cause of eutrophication. In this study, a microfiltration-based membrane photobioreactor (MPBR) and forward osmosis-based osmotic membrane photobioreactor (OMPBR) have been operated with Chlorella vulgaris for continuous tertiary wastewater treatment. Both the bioreactors exhibited good biomass accumulation (over 2g/L), although the OMPBR achieved better nutrients removal due to high rejection properties of the membranes. At 2days HRT, the OMPBR achieved nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies of 86-99% and 100%, respectively, whereas the corresponding values in the MPBR were 48-97% and 46%, respectively. Based on the energy input, the total operating costs for OMPBR were 32-45% higher than that of the MPBR, and filtration cost for OMPBR was 3.5-4.5 folds higher than that of the MPBR. These results indicate that the integration of membrane filtration with photobioreactors is promising in microalgae-based tertiary wastewater treatment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization and Evaluation of the Improved Performance of Modified Reverse Osmosis Membranes by Incorporation of Various Organic Modifiers and SnO2 Nanoparticles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kh. M. AL-Sheetan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Reverse osmosis (RO membranes modified with SnO2 nanoparticles of varied concentrations (0.001–0.1 wt.% were developed via in situ interfacial polymerization (IP of trimesoyl chloride (TMC and m-phenylenediamine (MPD on nanoporous polysulfone supports. The nanoparticles dispersed in the dense nodular polyamide on the polysulfone side. The effects of IP reaction time and SnO2 loading on membrane separation performance were studied. The modified reverse osmosis membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, X-ray diffractometer (XRD, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX, transmission electron microscopy (TEM, contact angle measurement, and atomic force microscopy (AFM. The synthesized SnO2 nanoparticles size varies between 10 and 30 nm. The results exhibited a smooth membrane surface and average surface roughness from 31 to 68 nm. Moreover, hydrophilicity was enhanced and contact angle decreased. The outcomes showed that an IP reaction time was essential to form a denser SnO2-polyamide layer for higher salt rejection, the developed reverse osmosis membranes with the incorporation of the SnO2 nanoparticles were examined by measuring permeate fluxes and salt rejection, and the permeate flux increased from 26 to 43.4 L/m2·h, while salt rejection was high at 98% (2000 ppm NaCl solution at 225 psi (1.55 MPa, 25°C.

Biogenic nanosilver incorporated reverse osmosis membrane for antibacterial and antifungal activities against selected pathogenic strains: an enhanced eco-friendly water disinfection approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Manjumeena, R; Duraibabu, D; Sudha, J; Kalaichelvan, P T

2014-01-01

Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have been used extensively in water desalination plants, waste water treatment in industries, agricultural farms and drinking water production applications. The objective of this work is to impart antibacterial and antifungal activities to commercially available RO membrane used in water purification systems by incorporating biogenic silver nanoparticles(AgNPs) synthesized using Rosa indica wichuriana hybrid leaf extract. The morphology and surface topography of uncoated and AgNPs-coated RO membrane were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Elemental composition of the AgNPs-coated RO membrane was analyzed by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX). The functional groups were identified by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Hydrophilicity of the uncoated and AgNPs-coated RO membrane was analyzed using water contact angle measurements. The thermal properties were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The AgNPs incorporated RO membrane exhibited good antibacterial and antifungal activities against pathogenic bacterial strains such as E. coli, S. aureus, M. luteus, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa and fungal strains such as Candida tropicalis, C. krusei, C. glabrata, and C. albicans.

Boron Removal in Radioactive Liquid Waste by Forward Osmosis Membrane

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hwang, Dooseong; Choi, Hei Min; Lee, Kune Woo; Moon Jeikwon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

These wastes contain about 0.3-0.8 wt% boric acid and have been concentrated through an evaporation treatment. Boric acid tends to crystallize owing to its solubility, and to plug the evaporator. The volume reduction obtained through evaporation is limited by the amount of boric acid in the waste. As an emerging technology, forward osmosis (FO) has attracted growing interest in wastewater treatment and desalination. FO is a membrane process in which water flows across a semi-permeable membrane from a feed solution of lower osmotic pressure to a draw solution of higher osmotic pressure. However, very few studies on the removal of boron by FO have been performed. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of boron separation in radioactive liquid waste by FO. In this study, the performance of FO was investigated to separate boron in the simulated liquid waste under the factors such as pH, osmotic pressure, ionic strength of the solution, and membrane characteristic. The boron separation in radioactive borate liquid waste was investigated with an FO membrane. When the feed solution containing boron is treated by the FO membrane, the boron permeation depends on the type of membrane, membrane orientation, pH of the feed solution, salt and boron concentration in the feed solution, and osmotic pressure of the draw solution. The boron flux begins to decline from pH 7, and increases with an increase in the osmotic driving force. The boron flux of the CTA-ES and ALFD membrane orientation is higher than those of the CTA-NW and ALFF orientation, respectively. The boron permeation rate is constant regardless of the osmotic pressure and membrane orientation. The boron flux decreases slightly with the salt concentration, but it is not heavily influenced at a low salt concentration.

Boron Removal in Radioactive Liquid Waste by Forward Osmosis Membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Dooseong; Choi, Hei Min; Lee, Kune Woo; Moon Jeikwon

2014-01-01

These wastes contain about 0.3-0.8 wt% boric acid and have been concentrated through an evaporation treatment. Boric acid tends to crystallize owing to its solubility, and to plug the evaporator. The volume reduction obtained through evaporation is limited by the amount of boric acid in the waste. As an emerging technology, forward osmosis (FO) has attracted growing interest in wastewater treatment and desalination. FO is a membrane process in which water flows across a semi-permeable membrane from a feed solution of lower osmotic pressure to a draw solution of higher osmotic pressure. However, very few studies on the removal of boron by FO have been performed. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of boron separation in radioactive liquid waste by FO. In this study, the performance of FO was investigated to separate boron in the simulated liquid waste under the factors such as pH, osmotic pressure, ionic strength of the solution, and membrane characteristic. The boron separation in radioactive borate liquid waste was investigated with an FO membrane. When the feed solution containing boron is treated by the FO membrane, the boron permeation depends on the type of membrane, membrane orientation, pH of the feed solution, salt and boron concentration in the feed solution, and osmotic pressure of the draw solution. The boron flux begins to decline from pH 7, and increases with an increase in the osmotic driving force. The boron flux of the CTA-ES and ALFD membrane orientation is higher than those of the CTA-NW and ALFF orientation, respectively. The boron permeation rate is constant regardless of the osmotic pressure and membrane orientation. The boron flux decreases slightly with the salt concentration, but it is not heavily influenced at a low salt concentration

Understanding the risk of scaling and fouling in hollow fiber forward osmosis membrane application

KAUST Repository

Majeed, Tahir; Phuntsho, Sherub; Jeong, Sanghyun; Zhao, Yanxia; Gao, Baoyu; Shon, Ho Kyong

2016-01-01

Fouling studies of forward osmosis (FO) were mostly conducted based on fouling evaluation principals applied to pressure membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO)/nanofiltration (NF)/microfiltration (MF)/ultrafiltration (UF). For RO/NF/MF/UF processes, the single flux driving force (hydraulic pressure) remains constant, thus the fouling effect is easily evaluated by comparing flux data with the baseline. Whilst, the scenario of fouling effects for FO process is entirely different from RO/NF/MF/UF processes. Continuously changing driving force (osmotic pressure difference), the changes in concentration polarization associated with the varying draw solution/feed solution concentration and the fouling layer effects collectively influence the FO flux. Thus, usual comparison of the FO flux outcome with the baseline results can not exactly indicate the real affect of membrane fouling, rather presents a misleading cumulative effect. This study compares the existing FO fouling technique with an alternate fouling evaluation approach using two FO set-ups. Scaling and fouling risk for hollow fiber FO was separately investigated using synthetic water samples and model organic foulants as alginate, humic acid and bovine serum albumin. Results indicated that FO flux declines up to 5% and 49% in active layer-feed solution and active layer-draw solution orientations respectively.

Understanding the risk of scaling and fouling in hollow fiber forward osmosis membrane application

KAUST Repository

Majeed, Tahir

2016-06-23

Fouling studies of forward osmosis (FO) were mostly conducted based on fouling evaluation principals applied to pressure membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO)/nanofiltration (NF)/microfiltration (MF)/ultrafiltration (UF). For RO/NF/MF/UF processes, the single flux driving force (hydraulic pressure) remains constant, thus the fouling effect is easily evaluated by comparing flux data with the baseline. Whilst, the scenario of fouling effects for FO process is entirely different from RO/NF/MF/UF processes. Continuously changing driving force (osmotic pressure difference), the changes in concentration polarization associated with the varying draw solution/feed solution concentration and the fouling layer effects collectively influence the FO flux. Thus, usual comparison of the FO flux outcome with the baseline results can not exactly indicate the real affect of membrane fouling, rather presents a misleading cumulative effect. This study compares the existing FO fouling technique with an alternate fouling evaluation approach using two FO set-ups. Scaling and fouling risk for hollow fiber FO was separately investigated using synthetic water samples and model organic foulants as alginate, humic acid and bovine serum albumin. Results indicated that FO flux declines up to 5% and 49% in active layer-feed solution and active layer-draw solution orientations respectively.

Application of forward osmosis membrane technology for oil sands process-affected water desalination.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Yaxin; Liang, Jiaming; Liu, Yang

2016-01-01

The extraction process used to obtain bitumen from the oil sands produces large volumes of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW). As a newly emerging desalination technology, forward osmosis (FO) has shown great promise in saving electrical power requirements, increasing water recovery, and minimizing brine discharge. With the support of this funding, a FO system was constructed using a cellulose triacetate FO membrane to test the feasibility of OSPW desalination and contaminant removal. The FO systems were optimized using different types and concentrations of draw solution. The FO system using 4 M NH4HCO3 as a draw solution achieved 85% water recovery from OSPW, and 80 to 100% contaminant rejection for most metals and ions. A water backwash cleaning method was applied to clean the fouled membrane, and the cleaned membrane achieved 77% water recovery, a performance comparable to that of new FO membranes. This suggests that the membrane fouling was reversible. The FO system developed in this project provides a novel and energy efficient strategy to remediate the tailings waters generated by oil sands bitumen extraction and processing.

Aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in forward osmosis: Chemical cleaning resistance and practical operation

KAUST Repository

Li, Zhenyu

2017-07-27

Aquaporin plays a promising role in fabricating high performance biomimetic forward osmosis (FO) membranes. However, aquaporin as a protein also has a risk of denaturation caused by various chemicals, resulting in a possible decay of membrane performance. The present study tested a novel aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in simulated membrane cleaning processes. The effects of cleaning agents on water flux and salt rejection were evaluated. The membrane showed a good resistance to the chemical agents. The water flux after chemical cleaning showed significant increases, particularly after cleaning with NaOCl and Alconox. Changes in the membrane structure and increased hydrophilicity in the surrounding areas of the aquaporin may be accountable for the increase in water permeability. The membrane shows stable salt rejection up to 99% after all cleaning agents were tested. A 15-day experiment with secondary wastewater effluent as the feed solution and seawater as the draw solution showed a stable flux and high salt rejection. The average rejection of the dissolved organic carbon from wastewater after the 15-day test was 90%. The results demonstrated that the aquaporin based biomimetic FO membrane exhibits chemical resistance for most agents used in membrane cleaning procedures, maintaining a stable flux and high salt rejection.

Aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in forward osmosis: Chemical cleaning resistance and practical operation

KAUST Repository

Li, Zhenyu; Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Bucs, Szilard; Fortunato, Luca; Hé lix-Nielsen, Claus; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Leiknes, TorOve; Amy, Gary

2017-01-01

Aquaporin plays a promising role in fabricating high performance biomimetic forward osmosis (FO) membranes. However, aquaporin as a protein also has a risk of denaturation caused by various chemicals, resulting in a possible decay of membrane performance. The present study tested a novel aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in simulated membrane cleaning processes. The effects of cleaning agents on water flux and salt rejection were evaluated. The membrane showed a good resistance to the chemical agents. The water flux after chemical cleaning showed significant increases, particularly after cleaning with NaOCl and Alconox. Changes in the membrane structure and increased hydrophilicity in the surrounding areas of the aquaporin may be accountable for the increase in water permeability. The membrane shows stable salt rejection up to 99% after all cleaning agents were tested. A 15-day experiment with secondary wastewater effluent as the feed solution and seawater as the draw solution showed a stable flux and high salt rejection. The average rejection of the dissolved organic carbon from wastewater after the 15-day test was 90%. The results demonstrated that the aquaporin based biomimetic FO membrane exhibits chemical resistance for most agents used in membrane cleaning procedures, maintaining a stable flux and high salt rejection.

Fouling behaviors of polybenzimidazole (PBI)-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fiber membranes for engineering osmosis processes

KAUST Repository

Chen, Sicong; Fu, Xiuzhu; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung

2014-01-01

This paper investigated the individual effects of reverse salt flux and permeate flux on fouling behaviors of as-spun and annealed polybenzimidazole (PBI)-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fiber membranes under forward osmosis (FO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) processes. Two types of membrane fouling had been studied; namely, inorganic fouling (CaSO4·2H2O gypsum scaling) during FO operations and organic fouling (sodium alginate fouling) during PRO operations. It is found that gypsum scaling on the membrane surface may be inhibited and even eliminated with an increase in reverse MgCl2 flux due to competitive formations of MgSO4° and CaSO4·2H2O. In contrast, the increase of reverse NaCl flux exhibits a slight enhancement on alginate fouling in both FO and PRO processes. Comparing to the reverse salt flux, the permeate flux always plays a dominant role in fouling. Therefore, lesser fouling has been observed on the membrane surface under the pressurized PRO process than FO process because the reduced initial flux mitigates the fouling phenomena more significantly than the enhancement caused by an increase in reverse NaCl flux. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Fouling behaviors of polybenzimidazole (PBI)-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fiber membranes for engineering osmosis processes

KAUST Repository

Chen, Sicong

2014-02-01

This paper investigated the individual effects of reverse salt flux and permeate flux on fouling behaviors of as-spun and annealed polybenzimidazole (PBI)-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fiber membranes under forward osmosis (FO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) processes. Two types of membrane fouling had been studied; namely, inorganic fouling (CaSO4·2H2O gypsum scaling) during FO operations and organic fouling (sodium alginate fouling) during PRO operations. It is found that gypsum scaling on the membrane surface may be inhibited and even eliminated with an increase in reverse MgCl2 flux due to competitive formations of MgSO4° and CaSO4·2H2O. In contrast, the increase of reverse NaCl flux exhibits a slight enhancement on alginate fouling in both FO and PRO processes. Comparing to the reverse salt flux, the permeate flux always plays a dominant role in fouling. Therefore, lesser fouling has been observed on the membrane surface under the pressurized PRO process than FO process because the reduced initial flux mitigates the fouling phenomena more significantly than the enhancement caused by an increase in reverse NaCl flux. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

A new nanocomposite forward osmosis membrane custom-designed for treating shale gas wastewater

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Detao; Liu, Zhaoyang; Delai Sun, Darren; Song, Xiaoxiao; Bai, Hongwei

2015-01-01

Managing the wastewater discharged from oil and shale gas fields is a big challenge, because this kind of wastewater is normally polluted by high contents of both oils and salts. Conventional pressure-driven membranes experience little success for treating this wastewater because of either severe membrane fouling or incapability of desalination. In this study, we designed a new nanocomposite forward osmosis (FO) membrane for accomplishing simultaneous oil/water separation and desalination. This nanocomposite FO membrane is composed of an oil-repelling and salt-rejecting hydrogel selective layer on top of a graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets infused polymeric support layer. The hydrogel selective layer demonstrates strong underwater oleophobicity that leads to superior anti-fouling capability under various oil/water emulsions, and the infused GO in support layer can significantly mitigate internal concentration polarization (ICP) through reducing FO membrane structural parameter by as much as 20%. Compared with commercial FO membrane, this new FO membrane demonstrates more than three times higher water flux, higher removals for oil and salts (>99.9% for oil and >99.7% for multivalent ions) and significantly lower fouling tendency when investigated with simulated shale gas wastewater. These combined merits will endorse this new FO membrane with wide applications in treating highly saline and oily wastewaters. PMID:26416014

The treatment of radioactive aqueous wastes by reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hodgson, T.D.

Experiments were carried out to determine the rejection factors for the more important radionuclides found in aqueous wastes, to study activity deposition within reverse osmosis modules, and to obtain experience in active operation of a reverse osmosis facility. It was found that reverse osmosis is likely to be useful in aqueous radioactive waste treatment when a wide range of contaminants rather than a specific radioactive species must be removed. There appeared to be no barrier to active operation, although greater confidence in the reliability of pumps and membranes is needed. The rejection of trace quantities of radioisotopes such as Cs + or Sr ++ could be predicted from the behaviour of similar inactive ions. Activity present as polyvalent ions or colloidal aggregates is highly rejected by the membrane. Activity may be deposited onto the membrane with insoluble or scaling compounds, and is greatest on areas of the membrane shielded from the sweeping action of the liquor flow

Nuclide separation modeling through reverse osmosis membranes in radioactive liquid waste

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byung-Sik Lee

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work is to investigate the transport mechanism of radioactive nuclides through the reverse osmosis (RO membrane and to estimate its effectiveness for nuclide separation from radioactive liquid waste. An analytical model is developed to simulate the RO separation, and a series of experiments are set up to confirm its estimated separation behavior. The model is based on the extended Nernst–Plank equation, which handles the convective flux, diffusive flux, and electromigration flux under electroneutrality and zero electric current conditions. The distribution coefficient which arises due to ion interactions with the membrane material and the electric potential jump at the membrane interface are included as boundary conditions in solving the equation. A high Peclet approximation is adopted to simplify the calculation, but the effect of concentration polarization is included for a more accurate prediction of separation. Cobalt and cesium are specifically selected for the experiments in order to check the separation mechanism from liquid waste composed of various radioactive nuclides and nonradioactive substances, and the results are compared with the estimated cobalt and cesium rejections of the RO membrane using the model. Experimental and calculated results are shown to be in excellent agreement. The proposed model will be very useful for the prediction of separation behavior of various radioactive nuclides by the RO membrane.

Nuclide separation modeling through reverse osmosis membranes in radioactive liquid waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Byung Sik [KEPCO Engineering and Construction, Gimcheon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-12-15

The aim of this work is to investigate the transport mechanism of radioactive nuclides through the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane and to estimate its effectiveness for nuclide separation from radioactive liquid waste. An analytical model is developed to simulate the RO separation, and a series of experiments are set up to confirm its estimated separation behavior. The model is based on the extended Nernst-Plank equation, which handles the convective flux, diffusive flux, and electromigration flux under electroneutrality and zero electric current conditions. The distribution coefficient which arises due to ion interactions with the membrane material and the electric potential jump at the membrane interface are included as boundary conditions in solving the equation. A high Peclet approximation is adopted to simplify the calculation, but the effect of concentration polarization is included for a more accurate prediction of separation. Cobalt and cesium are specifically selected for the experiments in order to check the separation mechanism from liquid waste composed of various radioactive nuclides and nonradioactive substances, and the results are compared with the estimated cobalt and cesium rejections of the RO membrane using the model. Experimental and calculated results are shown to be in excellent agreement. The proposed model will be very useful for the prediction of separation behavior of various radioactive nuclides by the RO membrane.

Influences of mechanical pre-treatment on the non-biological treatment of municipal wastewater by forward osmosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hey, Tobias; Zarebska, Agata; Bajraktari, Niada

2016-01-01

municipal wastewater treatment without the biological treatment step, including the effects of different pre-treatment configurations, e.g., direct membrane filtration before forward osmosis. Forward osmosis was tested using raw wastewater and wastewater subjected to different types of mechanical pre-treatment......, e.g., microsieving and microfiltration permeation, as a potential technology for municipal wastewater treatment. Forward osmosis was performed using thin-film-composite, Aquaporin Inside(TM) and HTI membranes with NaCl as the draw solution. Both types of forward osmosis membranes were tested......-sized wastewater treatment plants....

Energy consumption in membrane capacitive deionization for different water recoveries and flow rates, and comparison with reverse osmosis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhao, R.; Porada, S.; Biesheuvel, P.M.; Wal, van der A.

2013-01-01

Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) is a non-faradaic, capacitive technique for desalinating brackish water by adsorbing ions in charged porous electrodes. To compete with reverse osmosis, the specific energy consumption of MCDI needs to be reduced to less than 1 kWh per m3 of freshwater

Remediating biofouling of reverse osmosis membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siler, J.L.

1991-01-01

Several potential additives and the use of influent pH adjustment were examined to remediated the biofouling problem of the ETF reverse osmosis (RO) system. Tests were conducted with simulated RO feed containing salt, metal hydroxides and bacteria. The addition of sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP), sodium bisulfite, and adjusting the influent pH to 3 were each successful in reducing the RO biofouling. Little or no benefit was found from the use of a biofilm remover (Filmtec Alkaline Cleaner) or the use of surfactants (Surfynol or sodium lauryl sulfate). In addition, Surfynol use resulted in irreversible fouling and necessitated membrane replacement. At the water recoveries used in the ETF (>90%), sodium bisulfite addition resulted in the recovery of 70--90% of the flux and almost complete restoration of the DF to prefouled conditions. Based on the bench-scale tests completed, IWT would recommend that sodium bisulfite addition be tested at the ETF. This testing would involve optimizing the amount of bisulfite required. In addition, it is recommended that the addition of SHMP or influent pH adjustment be evaluated since the relative differences in labscale tests were small and scale-up effects could be present. The ETF operating permit allows each to be added

Opportunities and Challenges in Application of Forward Osmosis in Food Processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Rastogi, Navin K

2016-01-01

Food processing and preservation technologies must maintain the fresh-like characteristics of food while providing an acceptable and convenient shelf life as well as assuring safety and nutritional value. Besides, the consumers' demand for the highest quality convenience foods in terms of natural flavor and taste, free from additives and preservatives necessitated the development of a number of membrane-based non-thermal approaches to the concentration of liquid foods, of which forward osmosis has proven to be the most valuable one. A series of recent publications in scientific journals have demonstrated novel and diverse uses of this technology for food processing, desalination, pharmaceuticals as well as for power generation. Its novel features, which include the concentration of liquid foods at ambient temperature and pressure without significant fouling of membrane, made the technology commercially attractive. This review aims to identify the opportunities and challenges associated with this technology. At the same time, it presents a comprehensive account of recent advances in forward osmosis technology as related to the major issues of concern in its rapidly growing applications in food processing such as concentration of fruit and vegetable juices (grape, pineapple, red raspberry, orange, and tomato juice and red radish juice) and natural food colorants (anthocyanin and betalains extracts). Several vibrant and vital issues such as recent developments in the forward osmosis membrane and concentration polarization aspects have been also addressed. The asymmetric membrane used for forward osmosis poses newer challenges to account both external and internal concentration polarization leading to significant reduction in flux. The recent advances and developments in forward osmosis membrane processes, mechanism of water transport, characteristics of draw solution and membranes as well as applications of forward osmosis in food processing have been discussed.

Modification of PSf/SPSf Blended Porous Support for Improving the Reverse Osmosis Performance of Aromatic Polyamide Thin Film Composite Membranes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li-Fen Liu

2018-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, modification of polysulfone (PSf/sulfonated polysulfone (SPSf blended porous ultrafiltration (UF support membranes was proposed to improve the reverse osmosis (RO performance of aromatic polyamide thin film composite (TFC membranes. The synergistic effects of solvent, polymer concentration, and SPSf doping content in the casting solution were investigated systematically on the properties of both porous supports and RO membranes. SEM and AFM were combined to characterize the physical properties of the membranes, including surface pore natures (porosity, mean pore radius, surface morphology, and section structure. A contact angle meter was used to analyze the membrane surface hydrophilicity. Permeate experiments were carried out to evaluate the separation performances of the membranes. The results showed that the PSf/SPSf blended porous support modified with 6 wt % SPSf in the presence of DMF and 14 wt % PSf had higher porosity, bigger pore diameter, and a rougher and more hydrophilic surface, which was more beneficial for fabrication of a polyamide TFC membrane with favorable reverse osmosis performance. This modified PSf/SPSf support endowed the RO membrane with a more hydrophilic surface, higher water flux (about 1.2 times, as well as a slight increase in salt rejection than the nascent PSf support. In a word, this work provides a new facile method to improve the separation performance of polyamide TFC RO membranes via the modification of conventional PSf porous support with SPSf.

Influence of ion size and charge on osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cannon, James; Kim, Daejoong; Maruyama, Shigeo; Shiomi, Junichiro

2012-04-12

Osmosis is fundamental to many processes, such as in the function of biological cells and in industrial desalination to obtain clean drinking water. The choice of solute in industrial applications of osmosis is highly important in maximizing efficiency and minimizing costs. The macroscale process of osmosis originates from the nanoscale properties of the solvent, and therefore an understanding of the mechanisms of how these properties determine osmotic strength can be highly useful. For this reason, we have undertaken molecular dynamics simulations to systematically study the influence of ion size and charge on the strength of osmosis of water through carbon nanotube membranes. Our results show that strong osmosis occurs under optimum conditions of ion placement near the region of high water density near the membrane wall and of maintenance of a strong water hydration shell around the ions. The results in turn allow greater insight into the origin of the strong osmotic strength of real ions such as NaCl. Finally, in terms of practical simulation, we highlight the importance of avoiding size effects that can occur if the simulation cell is too small.

The potential of hybrid forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) processes in achieving high throughput treatment of municipal wastewater with enhanced phosphorus recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Guanglei; Zhang, Sui; Srinivasa Raghavan, Divya Shankari; Das, Subhabrata; Ting, Yen-Peng

2016-11-15

Extensive research in recent years has explored numerous new features in the forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) process. However, there is an aspect, which is revolutionary but not yet been investigated. In FOMBR, FO membrane shows high rejection for a wide range of soluble contaminants. As a result, hydraulic retention time (HRT) does not correctly reflect the nominal retention of these dissolved contaminants in the bioreactor. This decoupling of contaminants retention time (CRT, i.e. the nominal retention of the dissolved contaminants) from HRT endows FOMBR a potential in significantly reducing the HRT for wastewater treatment. In this work, we report our results in this unexplored treatment potential. Using real municipal wastewater as feed, both a hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (MF-FOMBR) and a newly developed hybrid biofilm-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (BF-FOMBR) achieved high removal of organic matter and nitrogen under HRT of down to 2.0 h, with significantly enhanced phosphorus recovery capacities. In the BF-FOMBR, the used of fixed bed biofilm not only obviated the need of additional solid/liquid separation (e.g. MF) to extract the side-stream for salt accumulation control and phosphorus recovery, but effectively quarantined the biomass from the FO membrane. The absence of MF in the side-stream further allowed suspended growth to be continuously removed from the system, which produced a selection pressure for the predominance of attached growth. As a result, a significant reduction in FO membrane fouling (by 24.7-54.5%) was achieved in the BF-FOMBR due to substantially reduced bacteria deposition and colonization. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface modification of commercial seawater reverse osmosis membranes by grafting of hydrophilic monomer blended with carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vatanpour, Vahid, E-mail: vahidvatanpour@khu.ac.ir; Zoqi, Naser

2017-02-28

Highlights: • A commercial PA RO membrane was modified by grafting of hydrophilic acrylic acid. • COOH-MWCNTs were mixed in grafting layer to increase permeability and antifouling. • However, more increase of CNTs caused in reduction of flux of the membranes. • Effect of acrylic acid amount, contact time and curing time was optimized. - Abstract: In this study, modification of commercial seawater reverse osmosis membranes was carried out with simultaneous use of surface grafting and nanoparticle incorporation. Membrane grafting with a hydrophilic acrylic acid monomer and thermal initiator was used to increase membrane surface hydrophilicity. The used nanomaterial was carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which were dispersed in the grafting solution and deposited on membrane surface to reduce fouling by creating polymer brushes and hydrodynamic resistance. Effectiveness of the grafting process (formation of graft layer on membrane surface) was proved by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. Increase of membrane surface hydrophilicity was approved with contact angle test. First, the grafting was performed on the membrane surfaces with different monomer concentrations, various contact times and several membrane curing times (three variables for optimization). The modified membranes were tested by a cross-flow setup using saline solution for permeability and rejection tests, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution for fouling test. The results showed that the modified membranes with 0.75 M of monomer, 3 min contact time and 80 min curing time in an oven at 50 °C presented the highest flux and lowest rejection decline related to the commercial reverse osmosis membrane. In the next step, the optimum grafting condition was selected and the nanotubes with different weight percentages were dispersed in the acrylic acid monomer solution. The membrane containing 0.25 wt% COOH-MWCNTs showed the

Surface modification of commercial seawater reverse osmosis membranes by grafting of hydrophilic monomer blended with carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vatanpour, Vahid; Zoqi, Naser

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A commercial PA RO membrane was modified by grafting of hydrophilic acrylic acid. • COOH-MWCNTs were mixed in grafting layer to increase permeability and antifouling. • However, more increase of CNTs caused in reduction of flux of the membranes. • Effect of acrylic acid amount, contact time and curing time was optimized. - Abstract: In this study, modification of commercial seawater reverse osmosis membranes was carried out with simultaneous use of surface grafting and nanoparticle incorporation. Membrane grafting with a hydrophilic acrylic acid monomer and thermal initiator was used to increase membrane surface hydrophilicity. The used nanomaterial was carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which were dispersed in the grafting solution and deposited on membrane surface to reduce fouling by creating polymer brushes and hydrodynamic resistance. Effectiveness of the grafting process (formation of graft layer on membrane surface) was proved by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. Increase of membrane surface hydrophilicity was approved with contact angle test. First, the grafting was performed on the membrane surfaces with different monomer concentrations, various contact times and several membrane curing times (three variables for optimization). The modified membranes were tested by a cross-flow setup using saline solution for permeability and rejection tests, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution for fouling test. The results showed that the modified membranes with 0.75 M of monomer, 3 min contact time and 80 min curing time in an oven at 50 °C presented the highest flux and lowest rejection decline related to the commercial reverse osmosis membrane. In the next step, the optimum grafting condition was selected and the nanotubes with different weight percentages were dispersed in the acrylic acid monomer solution. The membrane containing 0.25 wt% COOH-MWCNTs showed the

Forward osmosis for the treatment of reverse osmosis concentrate from water reclamation: process performance and fouling control.

Science.gov (United States)

Kazner, C; Jamil, S; Phuntsho, S; Shon, H K; Wintgens, T; Vigneswaran, S

2014-01-01

While high quality water reuse based on dual membrane filtration (membrane filtration or ultrafiltration, followed by reverse osmosis) is expected to be progressively applied, treatment and sustainable management of the produced reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC) are still important issues. Forward osmosis (FO) is a promising technology for maximising water recovery and further dewatering ROC so that zero liquid discharge is produced. Elevated concentrations of organic and inorganic compounds may act as potential foulants of the concentrate desalting system, in that they consist of, for example, FO and a subsequent crystallizer. The present study investigated conditions under which the FO system can serve as concentration phase with the focus on its fouling propensity using model foulants and real ROC. Bulk organics from ROC consisted mainly of humic acids (HA) and building blocks since wastewater-derived biopolymers were retained by membrane filtration or ultrafiltration. Organic fouling of the FO system by ROC-derived bulk organics was low. HA was only adsorbed moderately at about 7% of the initial concentration, causing a minor flux decline of about 2-4%. However, scaling was a major impediment to this process if not properly controlled, for instance by pH adjustment or softening.

Recycling of end-of-life reverse osmosis membranes by oxidative treatment: a technical evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Coutinho de Paula, Eduardo; Gomes, Júlia Célia Lima; Amaral, Míriam Cristina Santos

2017-07-01

The adverse impacts caused by the disposal of thousands of tonnes per annum of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes modules have grown dramatically around the world. The objective of this study was to evaluate the technical feasibility of recycling by chemical oxidation of end-of-life RO membranes for applications in other separation processes with specifications less rigorous. The recycling technique consisted in to cause a membrane exposition with oxidant solutions in order to remove its aromatic polyamide layer and subsequent conversion to a porous membrane. The recycling technique was evaluated by water permeability and salt rejection tests before and after the oxidative treatments. Initially, membranes' chemical cleaning and pretreatment procedures were assessed. Among factors evaluated, the oxidizing agent, its concentration and pH, associated with the oxidative treatment time, showed important influence on the oxidation of the membranes. Results showed that sodium hypochlorite and potassium permanganate are efficient agents for the membrane recycling. The great increased permeability and decreased salt rejection indicated changes on membranes' selective properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle characterization techniques revealed marked changes on the main membranes' physical-chemical properties, such as morphology, roughness and hydrophobicity. Reuse of produced effluents and fouling tendency of recycled membranes were also evaluated.

Energy consumption for sugar manufacturing. Part I: Evaporation versus reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Madaeni, S.S.; Zereshki, S.

2010-01-01

Removing water from various feeds is usually carried out using evaporation process especially in food industry. Due to the high latent heat of water, this unit operation results in consumption of unacceptable amount of energy. Finding low energy consuming processes which could be replaced with this process is still a challenge. The processes with no phase inversion may be considered for concentration purposes with reasonable energy consumption in comparison with the other various separation procedures. Reverse osmosis and most of the other membrane technologies are separation techniques without any change in the phase and therefore consume low amount of energy. Concentrating the sugar thin juice in the classical sugar manufacturing procedure is carried out using conventional evaporation. Reverse osmosis membranes may be used as a pre-concentration step to partially separate water from the sugar thin juice in combination with this part of the plant. Final concentration and thick juice preparation for crystallization may be carried out in the evaporation unit. In this study, membranes were employed for sugar thin juice concentration using a two-stage reverse osmosis process in two different arrangements. The energy consumption was calculated and compared for conventional evaporation versus reverse osmosis combined with evaporation. The results indicate that the employment of reverse osmosis membranes for concentrating the sugar thin juice leads to sensibly lower energy requirements. Furthermore, there is no thermal loss of sugar in the membrane process.

Permeability of uncharged organic molecules in reverse osmosis desalination membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Dražević, Emil; Košutić, Krešimir; Svalina, Marin; Catalano, Jacopo

2017-06-01

Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are primarily designed for removal of salts i.e. for desalination of brackish and seawater, but they have also found applications in removal of organic molecules. While it is clear that steric exclusion is the dominant removal mechanism, the fundamental explanation for how and why the separation occurs remains elusive. Until recently there was no strong microscopic evidences elucidating the structure of the active polyamide layers of RO membranes, and thus they have been conceived as "black boxes"; or as an array of straight capillaries with a distribution of radii; or as polymers with a small amount of polymer free domains. The knowledge of diffusion and sorption coefficients is a prerequisite for understanding the intrinsic permeability of any organic solute in any polymer. At the same time, it is technically challenging to accurately measure these two fundamental parameters in very thin (20-300 nm) water-swollen active layers. In this work we have measured partition and diffusion coefficients and RO permeabilities of ten organic solutes in water-swollen active layers of two types of RO membranes, low (SWC4+) and high flux (XLE). We deduced from our results and recent microscopic studies that the solute flux of organic molecules in polyamide layer of RO membranes occurs in two domains, dense polymer (the key barrier layer) and the water filled domains. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A novel reverse osmosis membrane by ferrous sulfate assisted controlled oxidation of polyamide layer

Science.gov (United States)

Raval, Hiren D.; Raviya, Mayur R.; Gauswami, Maulik V.

2017-11-01

With growing desalination capacity, it is very important to evaluate the performance of thin film composite reverse osmosis (TFC RO) membrane in terms of energy consumption for desalination. There is a trade-off between salt rejection and water-flux of TFC RO membrane. This article presents a novel approach of analyzing the effect of mixture of an oxidizing agent sodium hypochlorite and a reducing agent ferrous sulfate on virgin TFC RO membrane. Experiments were carried out by varying the concentrations of both sodium hypochlorite and ferrous sulfate. The negative charge was induced on the membrane due to the treatment of combination of sodium hypochlorite and ferrous sulfate, thereby resulting in higher rejection of negative ions due to repulsive force. Membrane treated with 1000 mg l-1 sodium hypochlorite and 2000 mg l-1 ferrous sulfate showed the best salt rejection i.e. 96.23%. The characterization was carried out to understand the charge on the membrane surface by Zeta potential, morphology of membrane surface by scanning electron microscope (SEM), surface roughness features by atomic force microscope (AFM) and chemical structural changes by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis.

Characteristics of Flux Decline in Forward Osmosis Process for Asymmetric Cellulose Membrane

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Han, Myeong-Jin; Nam, Suk-Tae [Kyungil University, Gyeongsan (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Keun-Woo [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-06-15

This study examined the effect of concentration polarization on permeate flux in forward osmosis (FO) membrane process for saline and sucrose solution. The reduction in permeate flux during the FO membrane process is largely due to the formation of concentration polarization on membrane surfaces. The flux reduction due to internal concentration polarization formed on the porous support layer was larger than that due to the external concentration polarization on the active membrane surface. Water permeate flux through the FO membrane increased nonlinearly with the increase in osmotic pressure. The water permeability coefficient was 1.8081x10{sup -7} m/s·atm for draw solution on active layer (DS-AL) mode and 1.0957-10{sup -7} m/s·atm for draw solution on support layer (DS-SL) mode in NaCl solution system. The corresponding membrane resistance was 5.5306x10{sup 6} and 9.1266x10{sup 6} s·atm/m, respectively. With respect to the sucrose solution, the permeate flux for DS-AL mode was 1.33-1.90 times higher than that for DS-SL mode. The corresponding variation in the permeation flux (J) due to osmotic pressure (π) would be expressed as J=-0.0177+0.4506π-0.0032π{sup 2} for the forward and J=0.0948+0.3292π-0.0037π{sup 2} for the latter.

Reverse osmosis membrane composition, structure and performance modification by bisulphite, iron(III), bromide and chlorite exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrer, O; Gibert, O; Cortina, J L

2016-10-15

Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane exposure to bisulphite, chlorite, bromide and iron(III) was assessed in terms of membrane composition, structure and performance. Membrane composition was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and membrane performance was assessed by water and chloride permeation, using a modified version of the solution-diffusion model. Iron(III) dosage in presence of bisulphite led to an autooxidation of the latter, probably generating free radicals which damaged the membrane. It comprised a significant raise in chloride passage (chloride permeation coefficient increased 5.3-5.1 fold compared to the virgin membrane under the conditions studied) rapidly. No major differences in terms of water permeability and membrane composition were observed. Nevertheless, an increase in the size of the network pores, and a raise in the fraction of aggregate pores of the polyamide (PA) layer were identified, but no amide bond cleavage was observed. These structural changes were therefore, in accordance with the transport properties observed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

New Dynamic Library of Reverse Osmosis Plants with Fault Simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luis, Palacin; Fernando, Tadeo; Cesar, de Prada; Elfil, Hamza

2009-01-01

This paper presents an update of a dynamic library of reverse osmosis plants (ROSIM). This library has been developed in order to be used for optimization, simulation, controller testing or fault detection strategies and a simple fault tolerant control is tested. ROSIM is based in a set of components representing the different units of a typical reverse osmosis plant (as sand filters, cartridge filters, exchanger energy recoveries, pumps, membranes, storage tanks, control systems, valves, etc.). Different types of fouling (calcium carbonate, iron hydroxide, biofouling) have been added and the mathematical model of the reverse osmosis membranes, proposed in the original library, has been improved.

Solution-diffusion with defects model for pressure-assisted forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang

2014-11-01

An osmosis transport model is presented that combines the standard internal and external concentration polarization equations in the forward osmosis (FO) field with the selective layer transport equations first proposed by Sherwood in 1967. The Sherwood model describes water flux as the sum of a solute-selective, diffusive component driven by the sum of osmotic pressure and hydraulic pressure differences, and a nonselective, convective component driven by hydraulic pressure difference only. This solution-diffusion with defects (SDWD) model and the solution-diffusion (SD) model were compared against data collected using polyamide thin-film-composite (PA-TFC) and integrally-skinned asymmetric cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes, evaluated in various configurations. When tested with pure water on the porous support side and 1.5. M (π=72.7. bar) sodium chloride solution on the selective layer side, applying 1.25. bar of hydraulic pressure to the porous support side increased water flux by an order of magnitude for PA-TFC membranes, but had negligible effect on CTA membrane flux. These large flux variations can be explained by the SDWD model, but not the SD model. To confirm the existence of defects, a PA-TFC membrane was coated with a uniform, highly water-permeable, nonselective polymer. After coating to block convection through defects, the influence of hydraulic pressure on water flux through this membrane essentially disappeared. Water flux through these defects is low (<1% of total water flux for PA-TFC membranes) and of little consequence in practical FO or reverse osmosis (RO) applications. But in pressure-assisted forward osmosis (PAFO) or pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), convective transport through defects affects the solute concentration difference across the membrane selective layer, increasing or decreasing water flux through defect-free regions. The presence of defects may explain why membrane power density in PRO is lower than that predicted based on

In-situ Non-destructive Studies on Biofouling Processes in Reverse Osmosis Membrane Systems

KAUST Repository

Farhat, Nadia

2016-12-01

Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane systems are high-pressure membrane filtration processes that can produce high quality drinking water. Biofouling, biofilm formation that exceeds a certain threshold, is a major problem in spiral wound RO and NF membrane systems resulting in a decline in membrane performance, produced water quality, and quantity. In practice, detection of biofouling is typically done indirectly through measurements of performance decline. Existing direct biofouling detection methods are mainly destructive, such as membrane autopsies, where biofilm samples can be contaminated, damaged and resulting in biofilm structural changes. The objective of this study was to test whether transparent luminescent planar oxygen sensing optodes, in combination with a simple imaging system, can be used for in-situ, non-destructive biofouling characterization. Aspects of the study were early detection of biofouling, biofilm spatial patterning in spacer filled channels, and the effect of feed cross-flow velocity, and feed flow temperature. Oxygen sensing optode imaging was found suitable for studying biofilm processes and gave detailed spatial and quantitative biofilm development information enabling better understanding of the biofouling development process. The outcome of this study attests the importance of in-situ, non-destructive imaging in acquiring detailed knowledge on biofilm development in membrane systems contributing to the development of effective biofouling control strategies.

A Comparison of Water Diffusion in Polymer Based Fuel Cell and Reverse Osmosis Membrane Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Soles, Christopher; Frieberg, Bradley; Tarver, Jacob; Tyagi, Madhusudan; Jeong, Cheol; Chan, Edwin; Stafford, Christopher

Hydrated polymer membranes are critical in both fuel cells and water filtration and desalination. In both of these applications the membrane function (selectively transporting or separating ions) is coupled with the transport of water through the membrane. There is a significant need to understand the nature by which the water and ions distribute and move through these membranes. This presentation compares the transport mechanisms in in an ion containing block copolymer alkaline fuel cell membrane with that of a polyamide membrane that is used as the active layer in a reverse osmosis water desalination membrane. Small angle neutron scattering measurements are used to locally probe how water swells the different materials and quantitatively describe the distribution of water within the membrane microstructures. Quasielastic neutron scattering measurements are then used to separate the polymer dynamics of the host membranes from the dynamics of the water inside the membranes. This reveals that water moves at least an order of magnitude slower through the ion containing fuel cell membrane materials, consistent with a solution-diffusion model, while the water in the polyamide membranes moves faster, consistent with a pore-flow diffusion mechanism. These insights will be discussed in terms of a coupling of the water and polymer dynamics and design cues for high performance membrane materials.

Treatment of low level waste water by reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Kaijun; Zhang Chuanzhi; Xue Qinhua; Liu Meijun

1987-11-01

A Study on the removal of certain radioactive elements Such as 141 Ce, 51 Cr 134 Cu, 106 Ru and 131 I by Reverse Osmosis and the effect of surface activity agent on property of membrance are described in this paper. RO model is carried out to examine the treatment of actual reactor waste water and radioactive laundry waste water. The removal efficiency of total β is 98%. Three preprocessing (cloth pocket filtrator, hivefiltrator and zone) and membrane cleaning methods (acid, ozone and spongeball) are also investigated

Application of Forward Osmosis Membrane in a Sequential Batch Reactor for Water Reuse

KAUST Repository

Li, Qingyu

2011-07-01

Forward osmosis (FO) is a novel membrane process that potentially can be used as an energy-saving alternative to conventional membrane processes. The objective of this study is to investigate the performance of a FO membrane to draw water from wastewater using seawater as draw solution. A study on a novel osmotic sequential batch reactor (OsSBR) was explored. In this system, a plate and frame FO cell including two flat-sheet FO membranes was submerged in a bioreactor treating the wastewater. We found it feasible to treat the wastewater by the OsSBR process. The DOC removal rate was 98.55%. Total nitrogen removal was 62.4% with nitrate, nitrite and ammonium removals of 58.4%, 96.2% and 88.4% respectively. Phosphate removal was almost 100%. In this OsSBR system, the 15-hour average flux for a virgin membrane with air scouring is 3.103 LMH. After operation of 3 months, the average flux of a fouled membrane is 2.390 LMH with air scouring (23% flux decline). Air scouring can help to remove the loose foulants on the active layer, thus helping to maintain the flux. Cleaning of the FO membrane fouled in the active layer was probably not effective under the conditions of immersing the membrane in the bioreactor. LC-OCD results show that the FO membrane has a very good performance in rejecting biopolymers, humics and building blocks, but a limited ability in rejecting low molecular weight neutrals.

Boron Removal in Seawater Reverse Osmosis System

KAUST Repository

Rahmawati, Karina

2011-07-01

Reverse osmosis successfully proves to remove more than 99% of solute in seawater, providing fresh water supply with satisfied quality. Due to some operational constraints, however, some trace contaminants removal, such as boron, cannot be achieved in one pass system. The stringent criterion for boron from World Health Organization (WHO) and Saudi Arabia local standard (0.5 mg/l) is hardly fulfilled by single pass sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants. Some design processes have been proposed to deal with boron removal, but they are not economically efficient due to high energy and chemical consumption. The objective of this study was to study boron removal by different reverse osmosis membranes in two pH conditions, with and without antiscalant addition. Thus, it was expected to observe the possibility of operating single pass system and necessity to operate two pass system using low energy membrane. Five membrane samples were obtained from two different manufacturers. Three types of feed water pH were used, pH 8, pH 10, and pH 10 with antiscalant addition. Experiment was conducted in parallel to compare membrane performance from two manufacturers. Filtration was run with fully recycle mode for three days. Sample of permeate and feed were taken every 12 hours, and analyzed for their boron and TDS concentration. Membrane samples were also tested for their surface charge. The results showed that boron rejection increases as the feed pH increases. This was caused by dissociation of boric acid to negatively charged borate ion and more negatively charged membrane surface at elevated pH which enhance boron rejection. This study found that single pass reverse osmosis system, with and without elevating the pH, may not be possible to be applied because of two reasons. First, permeate quality in term of boron, does not fulfill WHO and local Saudi Arabia regulations. Second, severe scaling occurs due to operation in alkaline condition, since Ca and Mg concentration are

Water reclamation from emulsified oily wastewater via effective forward osmosis hollow fiber membranes under the PRO mode.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Gang; de Wit, Jos S; Chung, Tai-Shung

2015-09-15

By using a novel hydrophilic cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) as the membrane material for the hollow fiber substrate and modifying its outer surface by polydopamine (PDA) coating and inner surface by interfacial polymerization, we have demonstrated that the thin-film composite (TFC) membranes can be effectively used for sustainable water reclamation from emulsified oil/water streams via forward osmosis (FO) under the pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) mode. The newly developed TFC-FO hollow fiber membrane shows characteristics of high water flux, outstanding salt and oil rejection, and low fouling propensity. Under the PRO mode, the newly developed TFC-FO membrane exhibits a water flux of 37.1 L m(-2) h(-1) with an oil rejection of 99.9% using a 2000 ppm soybean oil/water emulsion as the feed and 1 M NaCl as the draw solution. Remarkable anti-fouling behaviors have also been observed. Under the PRO mode, the water flux decline is only 10% of the initial value even after a 12 h test for oil/water separation. The water flux of the fouled membrane can be effectively restored to 97% of the original value by water rinses on the fiber outer surface without using any chemicals. Furthermore, the flux declines are only 25% and 52% when the water recovery of a 2000 ppm soybean oil/water emulsion and a 2000 ppm petroleum oil/water emulsion containing 0.04 M NaCl reaches 82%, respectively. This study may not only provide insightful guidelines for the fabrication of effective TFC-FO membranes with high performance and low fouling behaviors for oily wastewater under the PRO mode but also add an alternative perspective to the design of new materials for water purification purposes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Study to determine the technical and economic feasibility of reclaiming chemicals used in micellar polymer and low tension surfactant flooding. Final report. [Ultrafiltration membranes and reverse osmosis membranes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stephens, R.H.; Himmelblau, A.; Donnelly, R.G.

1978-02-01

Energy Resources Company has developed a technology for use with enhanced oil recovery to achieve emulsion breaking and surfactant recovery. By using ultrafiltration membranes, the Energy Resources Company process can dewater an oil-in-water type emulsion expected from enhanced oil recovery projects to the point where the emulsion can be inverted and treated using conventional emulsion-treating equipment. By using a tight ultrafiltration membrane or a reverse osmosis membrane, the Energy Resources Company process is capable of recovering chemicals such as surfactants used in micellar polymer flooding.

Nitric oxide treatment for the control of reverse osmosis membrane biofouling.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, Robert J; Low, Jiun Hui; Bandi, Ratnaharika R; Tay, Martin; Chua, Felicia; Aung, Theingi; Fane, Anthony G; Kjelleberg, Staffan; Rice, Scott A

2015-04-01

Biofouling remains a key challenge for membrane-based water treatment systems. This study investigated the dispersal potential of the nitric oxide (NO) donor compound, PROLI NONOate, on single- and mixed-species biofilms formed by bacteria isolated from industrial membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The potential of PROLI NONOate to control RO membrane biofouling was also examined. Confocal microscopy revealed that PROLI NONOate exposure induced biofilm dispersal in all but two of the bacteria tested and successfully dispersed mixed-species biofilms. The addition of 40 μM PROLI NONOate at 24-h intervals to a laboratory-scale RO system led to a 92% reduction in the rate of biofouling (pressure rise over a given period) by a bacterial community cultured from an industrial RO membrane. Confocal microscopy and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) extraction revealed that PROLI NONOate treatment led to a 48% reduction in polysaccharides, a 66% reduction in proteins, and a 29% reduction in microbial cells compared to the untreated control. A reduction in biofilm surface coverage (59% compared to 98%, treated compared to control) and average thickness (20 μm compared to 26 μm, treated compared to control) was also observed. The addition of PROLI NONOate led to a 22% increase in the time required for the RO module to reach its maximum transmembrane pressure (TMP), further indicating that NO treatment delayed fouling. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed that the NO treatment did not significantly alter the microbial community composition of the membrane biofilm. These results present strong evidence for the application of PROLI NONOate for prevention of RO biofouling. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Experimental study on treatment of simulated boron containing radioactive wastewater by reverse osmosis membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Xiaowei; Yang Kai; Kong Jinsong

2012-01-01

Experiments were carried out on a pilot equipment to study the performance of treatment of simulated boron containing radioactive wastewater by reverse osmosis membrane. Results showed that the rejection efficiency of boron, simulated nuclides and salts in simulated wastewater could be enhanced by increasing the feedwater pH, improving the applied pressure or reducing the recovery ratio. By adjusting the simulated wastewater pH to 9.0, the boron concentration in permeate could be lower than 5 mg/L and two nuclides including cobalt and cesium could be removed to a satisfied extend. (authors)

A comparison of the performance of aromatic polyamide and cellulose acetate reverse osmosis membrane on the regeneration of secondary effluents; Comparacion del funcionamiento de membranas de osmosis inversa de poliamida aromatica y acetato de celulosa en la regeneracion de efluentes secundarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lopez Ramirez, J. A.; Carrasco Vega, M.; Sales Marquez, D.; Quiroga Alonso, J. M.

2002-07-01

The application of reverse osmosis in regenerating waste waters has aroused a great deal of interest, although relatively few experiments using this technique have so far been carried out in Spain. In 1994, an experimental pilot plant was built at the La Barrosa waste water treatment plant in Chiclana de la Frontera in the province of Cadiz. This pilot plant with a capacity of 100 m''3/day, was equipped with various advanced treatments, most notably reverse osmosis, for treating urban waste waters for re-use. Since this pilot plant was built, various experiments have been carried out employing cellulose acetate (Hydranautics) and different types of Spanish-made aromatic polyamide membranes (Pridesa). Each type of membrane proposed different operating characteristics and feed-water requirements making each one suitable for a particular purpose. In this study, the secondary effluents was subjected to different kinds of treatment-called intense treatment, moderate treatment and minimum treatment-before reaching the reverse osmosis unit, which influenced the conditions in which the membranes operated. Following each type of treatment, the waters entering and leaving the installation were analysed to evaluate the quality of the final effluent and the effectiveness of the treatment carried out. The quality was extremely good in all the permeate samples analysed, almost irrespective of the type of treatment applied. It was also found that the cellulose acetate membranes tended to become less dirty than the aromatic polyamide membranes,due to their surface morphology. Nevertheless, the polyamide membranes have various advantages allowing them to be used in a wide range of applications at a lower energy cost. (Author) 8 refs.

Treatment of simulated plutonium-containing wastewater by ultrafiltration-reverse osmosis technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiong Zhonghua; Fan Xianhua; Luo Deli; Wang Tuo; Chen Qi

2008-01-01

Ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis were employed for the treatment of low level radioactive water containing plutonium. The system consists of ultrafiltration module with hollow fibre membrane and reverse osmosis module with spiral membrane. The decontamination efficiency and volume concentration ratio affected by technical parameters were explored in the experiment. The results show that the decontamination efficiency achieves 99.94% and the volume concentration ratio achieves 12.5 at pH=10 for solution fed into the membrane separation system. This technology will be applied in radioactive waste minimization as a new treatment method. (authors)

Influences of mechanical pretreatment on the non-biological treatment of municipal wastewater by forward osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hey, Tobias; Zarebska, Agata; Bajraktari, Niada; Vogel, Jörg; Hélix-Nielsen, Claus; la Cour Jansen, Jes; Jönsson, Karin

2017-09-01

Municipal wastewater treatment involves mechanical, biological and chemical treatment steps for protecting the environment from adverse effects. The biological treatment step consumes the most energy and can create greenhouse gases. This study investigates municipal wastewater treatment without the biological treatment step, including the effects of different pretreatment configurations, for example, direct membrane filtration before forward osmosis. Forward osmosis was tested using raw wastewater and wastewater subjected to different types of mechanical pretreatment, for example, microsieving and microfiltration permeation, as a potential technology for municipal wastewater treatment. Forward osmosis was performed using Aquaporin Inside™ and Hydration Technologies Inc. (HTI) membranes with NaCl as the draw solution. Both types of forward osmosis membranes were tested in parallel for the different types of pretreated feed and evaluated in terms of water flux and solute rejection, that is, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 7 ) and total and soluble phosphorus contents. The Aquaporin and HTI membranes achieved a stable water flux with rejection rates of more than 96% for BOD 7 and total and soluble phosphorus, regardless of the type of mechanical pretreated wastewater considered. This result indicates that forward osmosis membranes can tolerate exposure to municipal waste water and that the permeate can fulfil the Swedish discharge limits.

Reverse osmosis and its use at the nuclear power plants. Purification of primary circuit coolant by the means of reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kus, Pavel; Vonkova, Katerina; Kunesova, Katerina; Bartova, Sarka; Skala, Martin; Moucha, Tomáš

2014-01-01

This contribution is focused on the use of membrane technologies (e.g. reverse osmosis) for the primary coolant purification at the nuclear power plants. Currently, boric acid present in the primary coolant is preconcentrated at the evaporators, but their operation is very inefficient and expensive. Therefore, reverse osmosis was proposed as one of promising methods possibly replacing evaporators. The aim of the purification process is to achieve boric acid solution of a defined concentration (40 g/l) in the retentate stream in order to recycle it and reuse it in the primary circuit. Additionally, permeate flow should consist solely of pure water. To study the efficiency of several reverse osmosis modulus in the boric acid removal form the water solutions, experimental apparatus was constructed in our laboratory. It consists of the solution reservoir, pump and reverse osmosis modulus. The arrangement of experiments was batch and the retentate flow was refluxed to the feed solution. Several modulus of commercial reverse osmosis membranes were tested. The feed solution contained various concentrations of H 3 BO 3 , KOH, LiOH and NH 3 in order to simulate real primary coolant composition. Based on the experimental results, mathematical model was developed in order to optimize experimental conditions for the best results in primary coolant purification and boric acid preconcentration. (author)

Structural Study and Modification of Support Layer for Forward Osmosis Membranes

KAUST Repository

Shi, Meixia

2016-06-01

Water scarcity is a serious global issue, due to the increasing population and developing economy, and membrane technology is an essential way to address this problem. Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging membrane process, due to its low energy consumption (not considering the draw solute regeneration). A bottleneck to advance this technology is the design of the support layer for FO membranes to minimize the internal concentration polarization. In this dissertation, we focus on the structural study and modification of the support layer for FO membranes. Firstly, we digitally reconstruct different membrane morphologies in 3D and propose a method for predicting performance in ultrafiltration operations. Membranes with analogous morphologies are later used as substrate for FO membranes. Secondly, we experimentally apply substrates with different potentially suitable morphologies as an FO support layer. We investigate their FO performance after generating a selective polyamide layer on the top, by interfacial polymerization. Among the different substrates we include standard asymmetric porous membranes prepared from homopolymers, such as polysulfone. Additionally block copolymer membrane and Anodisc alumina membrane are chosen based on their exceptional structures, with cylindrical pores at least in part. 3D digitally reconstructed porous substrates, analogous to those investigated for ultrafiltration, are then used to model the performance in FO operation. Finally, we analyze the effect of intermediate layers between the porous substrate and the interfacial polymerized layer. We investigate two materials including chitosan and hydrogel. The main results are the following. Pore-scale modeling for digital membrane generation effectively predicts the velocity profile in different layers of the membrane and the performance in UF experiments. Flow simulations confirm the advantage of finger-like substrates over sponge-like ones, when high water permeance is sought

Liquid radwaste processing with spiral wound reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sengupta, S.K.; Buckley, L.P.; Rimpelainen, S.; Tremblay, A.Y.

1996-05-01

Two different reverse osmosis systems were investigated. The first was a 50-element plant-scale system that is used to treat 2200 m 3 of AECL liquid radwastes annually.It uses thin-film composite (TFC) membranes and operates at an applied pressure of 2760 kPa, with a fixed crossflow of about 40 L/min. The other system uses the same thin-film composite membranes for waste processing but is a two-element pilot-scale system. It is operated at pressures m ranging between 1500 and 7000 kPa, at a fixed crossflow of 55 L/min. The average lifetime of the thin-film composite membranes in the plant-scale processing application at AECL is about 3000 h. After this service life has expired the rejection efficiency declines rapidly from 99.5% to about 95% as the membranes become impaired from chemical cleaning procedures that are required after each 100 m 3 of waste is treated. The permeation flux for the plant-scale system decreases from about 2.2 L/min/element to below 0.5 L/min/element at the end of the membrane's useful service life. The plant-scale membrane elements, fouled by an assortment of chemicals including calcium phosphate and various organics, were successfully regenerated by exposing them to a threestep chemical cleaning procedure, using detergent, HCI, and an alkaline-based cleaning with EDTA. The three-step procedure was successful in elevating the flux from 0.5 L/min for the spent membrane to 1.2 L/min after cleaning. The 1.2-L/min postcleaning flux could be maintained provided that the crossflow velocity remained high. The decontamination factor (DF) for cesium for the plant-scale system, decreased from about 100 when the membranes were new, to about 30 after they were replaced. The strontium DF was unaffected by the applied pressure. 9 refs., 1 tab., 6 figs

Forward Osmosis System And Process

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang

2013-08-22

A forward osmosis fluid purification system includes a cross-flow membrane module with a membrane, a channel on each side of the membrane which allows a feed solution and a draw solution to flow through separately, a feed side, a draw side including a draw solute, where the draw solute includes an aryl sulfonate salt. The system can be used in a process to extract water from impure water, such as wastewater or seawater. The purified water can be applied to arid land.

Forward Osmosis System And Process

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang

2013-01-01

A forward osmosis fluid purification system includes a cross-flow membrane module with a membrane, a channel on each side of the membrane which allows a feed solution and a draw solution to flow through separately, a feed side, a draw side including a draw solute, where the draw solute includes an aryl sulfonate salt. The system can be used in a process to extract water from impure water, such as wastewater or seawater. The purified water can be applied to arid land.

Preparation and water desalination properties of POSS-polyamide nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang

2015-01-01

The application of nanotechnology to thin-film nanocomposites (TFN) is a new route to enhance membrane performance in water desalination. Here, the potential of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) as the nanofiller in polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis membranes was systematically investigated. Four POSS materials (P-8Phenyl, P-8NH3Cl, P-8NH2 and P-1NH2) were introduced into the selective layer by physical blending or chemical fixation during standard interfacial polymerization. Water flux and NaCl rejection were measured with 2000ppm NaCl solution under 15.5bar pressure, and SEM and TEM images of membrane selective layers were obtained. Membranes prepared without POSS showed water flux of 20.0±0.5L/m2·h and salt rejection of 98.0±0.2%. TFN membranes prepared with 0.4% (w/v) P-8Phenyl in the organic phase showed a 65% increase in water flux compared to the pristine PA membrane while maintaining high salt rejection. The selective layer of this membrane maintained the typical ridge-and-valley structure of aromatic PA. Results with P-8NH3Cl and P-8NH2 added to the organic phase were similar. TFN membranes prepared with monoamine P-1NH2 in the organic phase had poor water flux of 3.2L/m2·h, a smooth and more hydrophobic surface, and a much thicker (~400nm) selective layer. One of the four POSS compounds studied, P-8NH3Cl, is sufficiently soluble in water for incorporation into the selective layer via the aqueous phase. Membranes were prepared with P-8NH3Cl in the aqueous phase at varying reaction time, loading, and additive (triethylamine) concentration. With these parameters optimized, water flux increased to 35.4L/m2·h.

Effect of water temperature on biofouling development in reverse osmosis membrane systems

KAUST Repository

Farhat, Nadia

2016-07-14

Understanding the factors that determine the spatial and temporal biofilm development is a key to formulate effective control strategies in reverse osmosis membrane systems for desalination and wastewater reuse. In this study, biofilm development was investigated at different water temperatures (10, 20, and 30 °C) inside a membrane fouling simulator (MFS) flow cell. The MFS studies were done at the same crossflow velocity with the same type of membrane and spacer materials, and the same feed water type and nutrient concentration, differing only in water temperature. Spatially resolved biofilm parameters such as oxygen decrease rate, biovolume, biofilm spatial distribution, thickness and composition were measured using in-situ imaging techniques. Pressure drop (PD) increase in time was used as a benchmark as to when to stop the experiments. Biofilm measurements were performed daily, and experiments were stopped once the average PD increased to 40 mbar/cm. The results of the biofouling study showed that with increasing feed water temperature (i) the biofilm activity developed faster, (ii) the pressure drop increased faster, while (iii) the biofilm thickness decreased. At an average pressure drop increase of 40 mbar/cm over the MFS for the different feed water temperatures, different biofilm activities, structures, and quantities were found, indicating that diagnosis of biofouling of membranes operated at different or varying (seasonal) feed water temperatures may be challenging. Membrane installations with a high temperature feed water are more susceptible to biofouling than installations fed with low temperature feed water.

Enhanced forward osmosis from chemically modified polybenzimidazole (PBI) nanofiltration hollow fiber membranes with a thin wall

KAUST Repository

Wang, Kai Yu; Yang, Qian; Chung, Tai-Shung; Rajagopalan, Raj

2009-01-01

To develop high-flux and high-rejection forward osmosis (FO) membranes for water reuses and seawater desalination, we have fabricated polybenzimidazole (PBI) nanofiltration (NF) hollow fiber membranes with a thin wall and a desired pore size via non-solvent induced phase inversion and chemically cross-linking modification. The cross-linking by p-xylylene dichloride can finely tune the mean pore size and enhance the salt selectivity. High water permeation flux and improved salt selectivity for water reuses were achieved by using the 2-h modified PBI NF membrane which has a narrow pore size distribution. Cross-linking at a longer time produces even a lower salt permeation flux potentially suitable for desalination but at the expense of permeation flux due to tightened pore sizes. It is found that draw solution concentration and membrane orientations are main factors determining the water permeation flux. In addition, effects of membrane morphology and operation conditions on water and salt transport through membrane have been investigated. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhanced forward osmosis from chemically modified polybenzimidazole (PBI) nanofiltration hollow fiber membranes with a thin wall

KAUST Repository

Wang, Kai Yu

2009-04-01

To develop high-flux and high-rejection forward osmosis (FO) membranes for water reuses and seawater desalination, we have fabricated polybenzimidazole (PBI) nanofiltration (NF) hollow fiber membranes with a thin wall and a desired pore size via non-solvent induced phase inversion and chemically cross-linking modification. The cross-linking by p-xylylene dichloride can finely tune the mean pore size and enhance the salt selectivity. High water permeation flux and improved salt selectivity for water reuses were achieved by using the 2-h modified PBI NF membrane which has a narrow pore size distribution. Cross-linking at a longer time produces even a lower salt permeation flux potentially suitable for desalination but at the expense of permeation flux due to tightened pore sizes. It is found that draw solution concentration and membrane orientations are main factors determining the water permeation flux. In addition, effects of membrane morphology and operation conditions on water and salt transport through membrane have been investigated. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface modification of polyamide reverse osmosis membrane with organic-inorganic hybrid material for antifouling

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yang; Wan, Ying; Pan, Guoyuan; Yan, Hao; Yao, Xuerong; Shi, Hongwei; Tang, Yujing; Wei, Xiangrong; Liu, Yiqun

2018-03-01

A series of thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes based on polyamide have been modified by coating the polyvinyl alcohol and 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane aqueous solution prepared by a sol-gel process on the membrane surface, followed by thermal crosslinking treatment. In order to improve the hydrophilicity of the modified TFC membranes, the membranes were then immersed into H2O2 aqueous solution to convert -SH into -SO3H. The resulting TFC membranes were characterized by SEM, AFM, ATR-FTIR, streaming potential, XPS as well as static contact angle. After surface modification with the organic-inorganic hybrid material, the TFC membranes show increased NaCl rejection and decreased water flux with increasing 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane content in coating solution. The optimal modification membrane (PA-SMPTES-0.8) exhibits a NaCl rejection of 99.29%, higher than that (97.20%) of the virgin PA membrane, and a comparable water flux to virgin PA membrane (41.7 L/m2 h vs 47.9 L/m2 h). More importantly, PA-SMPTES-0.8 membrane shows much more improved fouling resistance to BSA than virgin PA and PVA modified PA (PA-PVA-1.0) membranes. PA-SMPTES-0.8 membrane loses about 13% of the initial flux after BSA fouling for 12 h, which is lower than that of virgin PA and PA-PVA-1.0 membranes (42% and 18%). Furthermore, the flux recovery of PA-SMPTES-0.8 membrane reaches 94% after cleaning. Thus the TFC membranes modified by this organic-inorganic hybrid technology show potential applications as antifouling RO membrane for desalination and purification.

Forward Osmosis/Low Pressure Reverse Osmosis for Water Reuse: Removal of Organic Micropollutants, Fouling and Cleaning

KAUST Repository

Linares, Rodrigo

2011-07-01

Forward osmosis (FO) is a natural process in which a solution with high concentration of solutes is diluted when being in contact, through a semipermeable membrane, with a low concentration solution. This osmotic process has been demonstrated to be efficient to recover wastewater effluents while diluting a saline draw solution. Nevertheless, the study of the removal of micropollutants by FO is barely described in the literature. This research focuses on the removal of these substances spiked in a secondary wastewater effluent, while diluting water from the Red Sea, generating feed water that can be desalinated with a low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) system. Another goal of this work is to characterize the fouling of the FO membrane, and its effect on micropollutants rejection, as well as the membrane cleaning efficiency of different methods. When considering only FO with a clean membrane, the rejection of the hydrophilic neutral compounds was between 48.6% and 84.7%, for the hydrophobic neutrals the rejection ranged from 40.0% to 87.5%, and for the ionic compounds the rejections were between 92.9% and 96.5%. With a fouled membrane, the rejections were between 44.6% to 95.2%, 48.7% to 91.5% and 96.9% to 98.6%, respectively. These results suggest that, except for the hydrophilic neutral compounds, the rejection of the micropollutants is increased by the fouling layer, possibly due to the higher hydrophilicity of the FO fouled membrane compared to the clean one, the increased adsorption capacity and reduced mass transport capacity, membrane swelling, and the higher negative charge of the surface, related to the foulants. However, when coupled with low pressure reverse osmosis, the rejections for both, the clean and fouled membrane, increased above 98%. The fouling layer, after characterizing the wastewater effluent and the concentrated wastewater after the FO process, proved to be composed of biopolymers, which can be removed with air scouring during short periods

Efficiently Combining Water Reuse and Desalination through Forward Osmosis-Reverse Osmosis (FO-RO) Hybrids: A Critical Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Blandin, Gaetan; Verliefde, Arne R D; Comas, Joaquim; Rodriguez-Roda, Ignasi; Le-Clech, Pierre

2016-07-01

Forward osmosis (FO) is a promising membrane technology to combine seawater desalination and water reuse. More specifically, in a FO-reverse osmosis (RO) hybrid process, high quality water recovered from the wastewater stream is used to dilute seawater before RO treatment. As such, lower desalination energy needs and/or water augmentation can be obtained while delivering safe water for direct potable reuse thanks to the double dense membrane barrier protection. Typically, FO-RO hybrid can be a credible alternative to new desalination facilities or to implementation of stand-alone water reuse schemes. However, apart from the societal (public perception of water reuse for potable application) and water management challenges (proximity of wastewater and desalination plants), FO-RO hybrid has to overcome technical limitation such as low FO permeation flux to become economically attractive. Recent developments (i.e., improved FO membranes, use of pressure assisted osmosis, PAO) demonstrated significant improvement in water flux. However, flux improvement is associated with drawbacks, such as increased fouling behaviour, lower rejection of trace organic compounds (TrOCs) in PAO operation, and limitation in FO membrane mechanical resistance, which need to be better considered. To support successful implementation of FO-RO hybrid in the industry, further work is required regarding up-scaling to apprehend full-scale challenges in term of mass transfer limitation, pressure drop, fouling and cleaning strategies on a module scale. In addition, refined economics assessment is expected to integrate fouling and other maintenance costs/savings of the FO/PAO-RO hybrid systems, as well as cost savings from any treatment step avoided in the water recycling.

Flux dependency of particulate/colloidal fouling in seawater reverse osmosis systems

KAUST Repository

Salinas Rodrí guez, S. G.; Kennedy, Maria Dolores; Amy, Gary L.; Schippers, Jan Cornelis

2012-01-01

of seawater in reverse osmosis systems; (3) to project the increase in pressure due to cake resistance in reverse osmosis systems. In this research, flat ultrafiltration membranes (100, 50, 30 and 10 kDa) are used in a con- stant flux filtration mode to test

Silt density index and modified fouling index relation, and effect of pressure, temperature and membrane resistance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Al-Hadidi, A.M.M.; Alhadidi, A.; Kemperman, Antonius J.B.; Blankert, B.; Blankert, B.; Schippers, J.C.; Wessling, Matthias; van der Meer, Walterus Gijsbertus Joseph

2011-01-01

Particulate matter present in feed water of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membrane elements tends to deposit on the membrane surface and spacers. This type of fouling results in permeate flux decline, loss of product quality and membrane damage. To characterize the fouling potential of RO feed

Liquid radwaste treatment by microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dulama, M.; Deneanu, N.; Popescu, I.V.

2001-01-01

Radioactive liquid waste processing is an integral part of any facility involved in nuclear power generation, radioisotope production, research and development, decontamination or other aspects of nuclear energy. The aqueous liquid radwastes from the decontamination center are currently treated by the membrane plant. Generally, the liquid waste streams are effectively volume-reduced by a combination of continuous crossflow microfiltration (MF), spiral wound reverse osmosis (SWRO) and tubular reverse osmosis membrane technologies. Backwash chemical cleaning wastes from the membrane plant are further volume-reduced by evaporation. The concentrate from the membrane plant is ultimately immobilized with bitumen. We performed experiments using two simulated waste solution; secondary waste from the decontamination process with POD (Permanganate Oxidation Decontamination) solution and secondary waste from decontamination with CAN-DECON solution. The experimental tests have been done with cellulose acetate (CA) membrane and polysulfonate (PSF) membrane manufactured at Research Center for Macromolecular Materials and Membranes Bucharest and with Millipore membrane type VS 0.025 μm. A schematic of the laboratory-scale test facility is presented

Use of reverse osmosis membranes for the separation of lemongrass essential oil and supercritical CO2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.A.V. Sarmento

2004-06-01

Full Text Available Although it is still used very little by industry, the process of essential oil extraction from vegetable matrices with supercritical CO2 is regarded as a potentially viable technique. The operation of separating the extract from the solvent is carried out by reducing the pressure in the system. Separation by membranes is an alternative that offers lower energy consumption and easier operation than traditional methods of separation. Combining the processes essential oil extraction with supercritical CO2 and separation by membranes permits the separation of solvent and oil without the need for large variations in extraction conditions. This results in a large energy savings in the case of solvent repressurisation and reuse. In this study, the effectiveness of reverse osmosis membranes in separating lemongrass essential oil from mixtures with supercritical CO2 was tested. The effects of feed oil concentration and transmembrane pressure on CO2 permeate flux and oil retention were studied for three membrane models.

Vacancy profile in reverse osmosis membranes studied by positron annihilation lifetime measurements and molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimazu, A; Shintani, T; Hirose, M; Goto, H; Suzuki, R; Kobayashi, Y

2013-01-01

The positron annihilation technique using a slow positron beam can be used for the study of the vacancy profiles in typical reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. In this study, the vacancy profile in the polyamide membrane that exhibits a high permselectivity between ions and water was studied using the positron annihilation technique and molecular dynamics simulations. Ortho-positronium (o-Ps) lifetimes in the surface region of the membranes were evaluated by using a slow positron beam. The diffusion behavior of Na + and water in the polyamides was simulated by molecular dynamics (MD) methods using the TSUBAME2 supercomputer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and discussed with the vacancy profile probed by the o-Ps. The results suggested that the large hydration size of Na + compared to the vacancy size in the polyamides contributes to the increased diffusivity selectivity of water/Na + that is related to the NaCl desalination performance of the membrane. Both the hydration size of the ions and the vacancy size appeared to be significant parameters to discuss the diffusivity selectivity of water/ions in typical polyamide membranes.

High-performance polyamide thin-film-nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes containing hydrophobic zeolitic imidazolate framework-8

KAUST Repository

Duan, Jintang

2015-02-01

A hydrophobic, hydrothermally stable metal-organic framework (MOF) - zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) was successfully incorporated into the selective polyamide (PA) layer of thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes for water desalination. The potential advantages of ZIF-8 over classic hydrophilic zeolite used in TFNs include: i) theoretically faster water transport within the framework and ii) better compatibility with the PA matrix. The TFN membranes were characterized with SEM, TEM, AFM, XPS, water contact angle measurements and reverse osmosis tests under 15.5bar hydraulic pressure with 2000ppm NaCl solution. Lab-made, nano-sized (~200nm) ZIF-8 increased water permeance to 3.35±0.08L/m2·h·bar at 0.4% (w/v) loading, 162% higher than the pristine PA membranes; meanwhile, high NaCl rejection was maintained. The TFN surface was less crosslinked and more hydrophilic than that of the pristine PA. A filler encapsulation mechanism was proposed for the effects of filler on TFN membrane surface morphology and properties. This study experimentally verified the potential use of ZIF-8 in advanced TFN RO membranes.

An alternative design concept in reverse osmosis desalination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boeddeker, K.W.; Hilgendorff, W.; Kaschemekat, J.

1976-01-01

A highly adaptable plate system for reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration with easily accessible flat membranes is introduced, employing a straight-channel construction of plastic components, designed to tolerate comparatively bold operations conditions at the calculated expense of membrane service life. Pilot installations are illustrated. (orig.) [de

Removal of some ions from the radioactive liquid wastes by means of membrane techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roman, Gabriela; Garganciuc, Dana; Batrinescu, Gheorghe; Popescu, Georgeta

2000-01-01

The radioactive wastes imply important problems in the pollution control. Contrary to the case of other liquid wastes, which are specifically treated depending on the nature of pollutants, the liquid radioactive wastes are treated as a function of their activity (high, medium or low) and not depending on the nature of radioisotopes. The paper presents the advantages of the membrane processes as comparing with the classical processes in the removal of some ions from liquid radioactive waste up to values admissible of the current standards. Two types of radioactive liquid solutions were processed namely: one solution from the decontamination of the parts of an installation and other from the decontamination of primary circuit of the nuclear power plant. The first solution was treated with ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, the retention for radioactive and toxic elements ranging between 14 - 69% for ultrafiltration and 63 - 99% for reverse osmosis. The second solution was processed only with reverse osmosis, a retention between 64 - 98% being obtained. The tests proved that by reverse osmosis membrane process a good removal efficiency of radioactive elements from liquid waste is obtained, corresponding to the requirements imposed by the current regulations. (author)

Carbon Dioxide Nucleation as a Novel Cleaning Method for Sodium Alginate Fouling Removal from Reverse Osmosis Membranes desalination

KAUST Repository

Alnajjar, Heba

2017-05-01

The use of Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have been significantly increasing in water desalination, and the main operational obstacle in RO desalination plants is membrane fouling. Among other solutes, dissolved biopolymers, such as polysaccharides can lead to severe membrane fouling especially with the addition of calcium ions because of the complexation formation between the surface of membrane and foulants materials. However, this complexation can also take place in the feed bulk, resulting in foulants aggregates formation. Although there are some physical techniques that can maintain the membrane performance without reducing its lifetime, only chemical cleanings are still commonly used in RO plants. In this study, a novel cleaning method is proposed to restore the membrane performance by removing the deposited foulants without reducing the membrane lifetime. The cleaning method is based on using water saturated with dissolved CO2 gas, and its principle is based on producing spontaneous CO2 bubbles due to local pressure difference leading to nucleation of bubbles throughout the membrane surface, especially at nucleation sites, which improve the cleaning efficiency. Alginic acid sodium salt was used as a model of polysaccharides foulants in presence of different concentrations of NaCl and calcium ions aiming to enhance membrane fouling, and then CO2 cleaning solution efficiency, in terms flux recovery (FR), was tested under different operating conditions and compared to other cleaning methods. Average FR of 20%±3, 25%±3 and 80%±3 for MilliQ water, a cleaning solution at pH4, and CO2 solution at 6 bar, 0.17 m/s, and 23 ̊C ±0.2 for 6 minutes were obtained, respectively. The efficiency of this novel cleaning method was also compared to direct osmosis overnight, and the average flux was comparable (about 60%±3), though that the cleaning time was significantly different. Various calcium concentrations (0-10 mM) were added in the alginate solution to study the

Structures of Bordered Pits Potentially Contributing to Isolation of a Refilled Vessel from Negative Xylem Pressure in Stems of Morus australis Poir.: Testing of the Pit Membrane Osmosis and Pit Valve Hypotheses.

Science.gov (United States)

Ooeda, Hiroki; Terashima, Ichiro; Taneda, Haruhiko

2017-02-01

Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanism preventing the refilling vessel water from being drained to the neighboring functional vessels under negative pressure. The pit membrane osmosis hypothesis proposes that the xylem parenchyma cells release polysaccharides that are impermeable to the intervessel pit membranes into the refilling vessel; this osmotically counteracts the negative pressure, thereby allowing the vessel to refill. The pit valve hypothesis proposes that gas trapped within intervessel bordered pits isolates the refilling vessel water from the surrounding functional vessels. Here, using the single-vessel method, we assessed these hypotheses in shoots of mulberry (Morus australis Poir.). First, we confirmed the occurrence of xylem refilling under negative pressure in the potted mulberry saplings. To examine the pit membrane osmosis hypothesis, we estimated the semi-permeability of pit membranes for molecules of various sizes and found that the pit membranes were not semi-permeable to polyethylene glycol of molecular mass osmosis mechanism in mulberry would be unrealistically large. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The effects of surface-charged submicron polystyrene particles on the structure and performance of PSF forward osmosis membrane

Science.gov (United States)

Zuo, Hao-Ran; Fu, Jia-Bei; Cao, Gui-Ping; Hu, Nian; Lu, Hui; Liu, Hui-Qing; Chen, Peng-Peng; Yu, Jie

2018-04-01

Monodisperse surface-charged submicron polystyrene particles were designed, synthesized, and blended into polysulfone (PSF) support layer to prepare forward osmosis (FO) membrane with high performance. The membrane incorporated with particles were characterized with respect to morphology, porosity, and internal osmotic pressure (IOP). Results showed that the polymer particles not only increased the hydrophilicity and porosity of support layer, but also generated considerable IOP, which helped markedly decreasing the structure parameter from 1550 to 670 μm. The measured mass transfer parameters further confirmed the beneficial effects of the surface-charged submicron polymer particles on the performance of FO membrane. For instance, the water permeability coefficient (5.37 L m-2 h-1 bar-1) and water flux (49.7 L m-2 h-1) of the FO membrane incorporated with 5 wt% particles were almost twice as much as that of FO membrane without incorporation. This study suggests that monodisperse surface-charged submicron polymer particles are potential modifiers for improving the performance of FO membranes.

Effect of water temperature on biofouling development in reverse osmosis membrane systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Farhat, N M; Vrouwenvelder, J S; Van Loosdrecht, M C M; Bucs, Sz S; Staal, M

2016-10-15

Understanding the factors that determine the spatial and temporal biofilm development is a key to formulate effective control strategies in reverse osmosis membrane systems for desalination and wastewater reuse. In this study, biofilm development was investigated at different water temperatures (10, 20, and 30 °C) inside a membrane fouling simulator (MFS) flow cell. The MFS studies were done at the same crossflow velocity with the same type of membrane and spacer materials, and the same feed water type and nutrient concentration, differing only in water temperature. Spatially resolved biofilm parameters such as oxygen decrease rate, biovolume, biofilm spatial distribution, thickness and composition were measured using in-situ imaging techniques. Pressure drop (PD) increase in time was used as a benchmark as to when to stop the experiments. Biofilm measurements were performed daily, and experiments were stopped once the average PD increased to 40 mbar/cm. The results of the biofouling study showed that with increasing feed water temperature (i) the biofilm activity developed faster, (ii) the pressure drop increased faster, while (iii) the biofilm thickness decreased. At an average pressure drop increase of 40 mbar/cm over the MFS for the different feed water temperatures, different biofilm activities, structures, and quantities were found, indicating that diagnosis of biofouling of membranes operated at different or varying (seasonal) feed water temperatures may be challenging. Membrane installations with a high temperature feed water are more susceptible to biofouling than installations fed with low temperature feed water. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microalgae dewatering based on forward osmosis employing proton exchange membrane.

Science.gov (United States)

Son, Jieun; Sung, Mina; Ryu, Hoyoung; Oh, You-Kwan; Han, Jong-In

2017-11-01

In this study, electrically-facilitated forward osmosis (FO) employing proton exchange membrane (PEM) was established for the purpose of microalgae dewatering. An increase in water flux was observed when an external voltage was applied to the FO equipped with the PEM; as expected, the trend became more dramatic with both concentration of draw solution and applied voltage raised. With this FO used for microalgae dewatering, 247% of increase in flux and 86% in final biomass concentration were observed. In addition to the effect on flux improvement, the electrically-facilitated FO exhibited the ability to remove chlorophyll from the dewatered biomass, down to 0.021±0015mg/g cell. All these suggest that the newly suggested electrically-facilitated FO, one particularly employed PEM, can indeed offer a workable way of dewatering of microalgae; it appeared to be so because it can also remove the ever-problematic chlorophyll from extracted lipids in a simultaneous fashion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles as a draw solute in forward osmosis membrane process for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Heeman; Lee, Kune Woo; Moon, Jei Kwon

2013-01-01

These wastes contain about 0.3 ∼ 0.8 wt% of boric acid. It is known that reverse osmosis (RO) membrane can eliminate boron at high pH and boron of 40 ∼ 90% can be removed by RO membrane in pH condition. RO uses hydraulic pressure to oppose, and exceed, the osmotic pressure of an aqueous feed solution containing boric acid. As an emerging technology forward osmosis (FO) has attracted growing interest in wastewater treatment and desalination because FO operates at low or no hydraulic pressures. FO is a membrane process in which water flows across a semi-permeable membrane from a feed solution of lower osmotic pressure to a draw solution of higher osmotic pressure. However, the challenges of FO still lie in the fabrication of eligible FO membranes and the readily separable draw solutes of high osmotic pressures. Superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles can be separated from water by an external magnet field easily. If Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles are coated with highly soluble organic substances, thus they can be used as a draw solute by concurrently generating high osmotic pressure and easy separation. The carboxylated polyglycerol coated Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized. The nanoparticles were about 50 nm in diameter and showed the good colloidal stability in aqueous solution. The osmolality and osmotic pressure were enough high to be used as a draw solute in FO. For the future work, we will investigate the performance of our magnetic draw solute in FO to remove boron in the simulated liquid waste

Rejection of Emerging Organic Contaminants by Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes: Effects of Fouling, Modelling and Water Reuse

OpenAIRE

Yangali Quintanilla, V.

2010-01-01

The book contains a description of the presence of micropollutants (medicines, hormones, pesticides) in surface water and shows that conventional water treatment poorly removes micropollutants. Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis are more appropriate technologies; however removals can vary depending on the properties of compounds and types of membranes. Thus, quantification of removals is studied by means of multivariate data analysis techniques and more understanding of the separation of micr...

The utilization of forward osmosis for coal tailings dewatering

Science.gov (United States)

The feasibility of dewatering coal tailings slurry by forward osmosis (FO) membrane process was investigated in this research. A prototype cell was designed and used for the dewatering tests. A cellulosic FO membrane (Hydration Technology Innovations, LLC, Albany, OR) was used fo...

Non-linear osmosis

Science.gov (United States)

Diamond, Jared M.

1966-01-01

1. The relation between osmotic gradient and rate of osmotic water flow has been measured in rabbit gall-bladder by a gravimetric procedure and by a rapid method based on streaming potentials. Streaming potentials were directly proportional to gravimetrically measured water fluxes. 2. As in many other tissues, water flow was found to vary with gradient in a markedly non-linear fashion. There was no consistent relation between the water permeability and either the direction or the rate of water flow. 3. Water flow in response to a given gradient decreased at higher osmolarities. The resistance to water flow increased linearly with osmolarity over the range 186-825 m-osM. 4. The resistance to water flow was the same when the gall-bladder separated any two bathing solutions with the same average osmolarity, regardless of the magnitude of the gradient. In other words, the rate of water flow is given by the expression (Om — Os)/[Ro′ + ½k′ (Om + Os)], where Ro′ and k′ are constants and Om and Os are the bathing solution osmolarities. 5. Of the theories advanced to explain non-linear osmosis in other tissues, flow-induced membrane deformations, unstirred layers, asymmetrical series-membrane effects, and non-osmotic effects of solutes could not explain the results. However, experimental measurements of water permeability as a function of osmolarity permitted quantitative reconstruction of the observed water flow—osmotic gradient curves. Hence non-linear osmosis in rabbit gall-bladder is due to a decrease in water permeability with increasing osmolarity. 6. The results suggest that aqueous channels in the cell membrane behave as osmometers, shrinking in concentrated solutions of impermeant molecules and thereby increasing membrane resistance to water flow. A mathematical formulation of such a membrane structure is offered. PMID:5945254

Novel technologies for reverse osmosis concentrate treatment: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Joo, Sung Hee; Tansel, Berrin

2015-03-01

Global water shortages due to droughts and population growth have created increasing interest in water reuse and recycling and, concomitantly, development of effective water treatment processes. Pressured membrane processes, in particular reverse osmosis, have been adopted in water treatment industries and utilities despite the relatively high operational cost and energy consumption. However, emerging contaminants are present in reverse osmosis concentrate in higher concentrations than in the feed water, and have created challenges for treatment of the concentrate. Further, standards and guidelines for assessment and treatment of newly identified contaminants are currently lacking. Research is needed regarding the treatment and disposal of emerging contaminants of concern in reverse osmosis concentrate, in order to develop cost-effective methods for minimizing potential impacts on public health and the environment. This paper reviews treatment options for concentrate from membrane processes. Barriers to emerging treatment options are discussed and novel treatment processes are evaluated based on a literature review. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Separation of mixtures of organic substance using reverse osmosis membranes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kimura, Shoji; Nakao, Shin' ichi; Tanimura, Shinobu

1987-12-25

With the arrival of energy crisis, attention has been concentrated on the production of alcohol by means of biomass conversion. Energy-saving concentration method was searched to replace a distillation method as a method of concentrating dilute alcohols, for which a reverse osmosis method was proposed; experimental results have been reported accordingly. One result is that the osmotic pressure method has a limitation of difficulty to exceed more than 15% concentration. For this, the reverse osmosis was reviewed and it was found that wider concentration range should be examined for the area where the reverse osmosis was not experimented. Fils employed were a polyamide film of Nitto Denko Co. and an acrylonitrile film of sumitomo Chemical Co.. The result revealed that alcohol could be concentrated up to rather high concentration in alcohol-water system; even in a non-aqueous system, separation with high selective permeability was possible by the proper selection of film materials. (4 figs, 2 refs)

In situ formation of silver nanoparticles on thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes for biofouling mitigation

KAUST Repository

Ben-Sasson, Moshe

2014-10-01

The potential to incorporate silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) as biocides in membranes for water purification has gained much interest in recent years. However, a viable strategy for loading the Ag-NPs on the membrane remains challenging. This paper presents a novel, facile procedure for loading Ag-NPs on thin-film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis membranes. Reaction of silver salt with a reducing agent on the membrane surface resulted in uniform coverage of Ag-NPs, irreversibly bound to the membrane, as confirmed by XPS, TEM, and SEM analyses. Salt selectivity of the membrane as well its surface roughness, hydrophilicity, and zeta potential were not impacted by Ag-NP functionalization, while a slight reduction (up to 17%) in water permeability was observed. The formed Ag-NPs imparted strong antibacterial activity to the membrane, leading to reduction of more than 75% in the number of live bacteria attached to the membrane for three model bacteria strains. In addition, confocal microscopy analyses revealed that Ag-NPs significantly suppressed biofilm formation, with 41% reduction in total biovolume and significant reduction in EPS, dead, and live bacteria on the functionalized membrane. The simplicity of the method, the short reaction time, the ability to load the Ag-NPs on site, and the strong imparted antibacterial activity highlight the potential of this method in real-world RO membrane applications. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

In situ formation of silver nanoparticles on thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes for biofouling mitigation

KAUST Repository

Ben-Sasson, Moshe; Lu, Xinglin; Bar-Zeev, Edo; Zodrow, Katherine R.; Nejati, Siamak; Qi, Genggeng; Giannelis, Emmanuel P.; Elimelech, Menachem

2014-01-01

The potential to incorporate silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) as biocides in membranes for water purification has gained much interest in recent years. However, a viable strategy for loading the Ag-NPs on the membrane remains challenging. This paper presents a novel, facile procedure for loading Ag-NPs on thin-film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis membranes. Reaction of silver salt with a reducing agent on the membrane surface resulted in uniform coverage of Ag-NPs, irreversibly bound to the membrane, as confirmed by XPS, TEM, and SEM analyses. Salt selectivity of the membrane as well its surface roughness, hydrophilicity, and zeta potential were not impacted by Ag-NP functionalization, while a slight reduction (up to 17%) in water permeability was observed. The formed Ag-NPs imparted strong antibacterial activity to the membrane, leading to reduction of more than 75% in the number of live bacteria attached to the membrane for three model bacteria strains. In addition, confocal microscopy analyses revealed that Ag-NPs significantly suppressed biofilm formation, with 41% reduction in total biovolume and significant reduction in EPS, dead, and live bacteria on the functionalized membrane. The simplicity of the method, the short reaction time, the ability to load the Ag-NPs on site, and the strong imparted antibacterial activity highlight the potential of this method in real-world RO membrane applications. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Forward Osmosis Brine Drying

Science.gov (United States)

Flynn, Michael; Shaw, Hali; Hyde, Deirdre; Beeler, David; Parodi, Jurek

2015-01-01

The Forward Osmosis Brine Drying (FOBD) system is based on a technique called forward osmosis (FO). FO is a membrane-based process where the osmotic potential between brine and a salt solution is equalized by the movement of water from the brine to the salt solution. The FOBD system is composed of two main elements, the FO bag and the salt regeneration system. This paper discusses the results of testing of the FO bag to determine the maximum water recovery ratio that can be attained using this technology. Testing demonstrated that the FO bag is capable of achieving a maximum brine water recovery ratio of the brine of 95%. The equivalent system mass was calculated to be 95 kg for a feed similar to the concentrated brine generated on the International Space Station and 86 kg for an Exploration brine. The results have indicated that the FOBD can process all the brine for a one year mission for between 11% to 10% mass required to bring the water needed to make up for water lost in the brine if not recycled. The FOBD saves 685 kg and when treating the International Space Station brine and it saves 829 kg when treating the Exploration brine. It was also demonstrated that saturated salt solutions achieve a higher water recovery ratios than solids salts do and that lithium chloride achieved a higher water recovery ratio than sodium chloride.

Outer-selective pressure-retarded osmosis hollow fiber membranes from vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization for osmotic power generation

KAUST Repository

Sun, Shipeng; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung

2013-01-01

In this paper, we report the technical breakthroughs to synthesize outer-selective thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber membranes, which is in an urgent need for osmotic power generation with the pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) process. In the first step, a defect-free thin-film composite membrane module is achieved by vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization. The PRO performance is further enhanced by optimizing the support in terms of pore size and mechanical strength and the TFC layer with polydopamine coating and molecular engineering of the interfacial polymerization solution. The newly developed membranes can stand over 20 bar with a peak power density of 7.63 W/m2, which is equivalent to 13.72 W/m2 of its inner-selective hollow fiber counterpart with the same module size, packing density, and fiber dimensions. The study may provide insightful guidelines for optimizing the interfacial polymerization procedures and scaling up of the outer-selective TFC hollow fiber membrane modules for PRO power generation. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Outer-selective pressure-retarded osmosis hollow fiber membranes from vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization for osmotic power generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Shi-Peng; Chung, Tai-Shung

2013-11-19

In this paper, we report the technical breakthroughs to synthesize outer-selective thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber membranes, which is in an urgent need for osmotic power generation with the pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) process. In the first step, a defect-free thin-film composite membrane module is achieved by vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization. The PRO performance is further enhanced by optimizing the support in terms of pore size and mechanical strength and the TFC layer with polydopamine coating and molecular engineering of the interfacial polymerization solution. The newly developed membranes can stand over 20 bar with a peak power density of 7.63 W/m(2), which is equivalent to 13.72 W/m(2) of its inner-selective hollow fiber counterpart with the same module size, packing density, and fiber dimensions. The study may provide insightful guidelines for optimizing the interfacial polymerization procedures and scaling up of the outer-selective TFC hollow fiber membrane modules for PRO power generation.

Outer-selective pressure-retarded osmosis hollow fiber membranes from vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization for osmotic power generation

KAUST Repository

Sun, Shipeng

2013-11-19

In this paper, we report the technical breakthroughs to synthesize outer-selective thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber membranes, which is in an urgent need for osmotic power generation with the pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) process. In the first step, a defect-free thin-film composite membrane module is achieved by vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization. The PRO performance is further enhanced by optimizing the support in terms of pore size and mechanical strength and the TFC layer with polydopamine coating and molecular engineering of the interfacial polymerization solution. The newly developed membranes can stand over 20 bar with a peak power density of 7.63 W/m2, which is equivalent to 13.72 W/m2 of its inner-selective hollow fiber counterpart with the same module size, packing density, and fiber dimensions. The study may provide insightful guidelines for optimizing the interfacial polymerization procedures and scaling up of the outer-selective TFC hollow fiber membrane modules for PRO power generation. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Removal of radionuclides in drinking water by membrane treatment using ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and electrodialysis reversal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montaña, M.; Camacho, A.; Serrano, I.; Devesa, R.; Matia, L.; Vallés, I.

2013-01-01

A pilot plant had been built to test the behaviour of ultrafiltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), and electrodialysis reversal (EDR) in order to improve the quality of the water supplied to Barcelona metropolitan area from the Llobregat River. This paper presents results from two studies to reduce natural radioactivity. The results from the pilot plant with four different scenarios were used to design the full-scale treatment plant built (SJD WTP). The samples taken at different steps of the treatment were analysed to determine gross alpha, gross beta and uranium activity. The results obtained revealed a significant improvement in the radiological water quality provided by both membrane techniques (RO and EDR showed removal rates higher than 60%). However, UF did not show any significant removal capacity for gross alpha, gross beta or uranium activities. RO was better at reducing the radiological parameters studied and this treatment was selected and applied at the full scale treatment plant. The RO treatment used at the SJD WTP reduced the concentration of both gross alpha and gross beta activities and also produced water of high quality with an average removal of 95% for gross alpha activity and almost 93% for gross beta activity at the treatment plant. -- Highlights: ► A study with a pilot plant using different membranes technologies was made. ► Big reduction on natural uranium and 40 K by reverse osmosis was found. ► Pilot plant and full-scale treatment plant behave similarly

Ozonation of nanofiltration permeate of whey before processing by reverse osmosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zmievskii Yurii G.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available During nanofiltration processing of whey a significant amount of permeate is generated. In some cases this permeate is treated by reverse osmosis to get purified water for technological needs. Dry substances are not used, because they contain practically the same amount of organic and inorganic components. Mineral substances can be used for the mineralization of drinking water purified by reverse osmosis. However, the presence of organic compounds complicates the process of separation, as well as reduces the specific productivity of reverse osmosis membranes at the concentration stage. Therefore, the search for methods of destruction and removal of organic components is grounded. In the presented work, experimental studies of ozonation and sorption of organic compounds by activated carbon were carried. It has been shown that ozonation improves the degree of sorption purification by six times. Sequential treatment with ozone and subsequent filtration through the layer of activated carbon improves the specific productivity of reverse osmosis membranes by 30% at the stage of treatment of the nanofiltration permeate, while their selectivity remains unchanged.

Reverse Osmosis

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

many applications, one of which is desalination of seawater. The inaugural Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to van 't Hoff for his seminal work in this area. The present article explains the principle of osmosis and reverse osmosis. Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis. As the name suggests, reverse osmosis is the ...

Integrated Wireless Monitoring and Control System in Reverse Osmosis Membrane Desalination Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Al Haji Ahmad

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The operational processes of the Reverse Osmosis (RO membrane desalination plants require continuous monitoring through the constant attendance of operators to ensure proper productivity and minimize downtime and prevent membrane failure. Therefore, the plant must be equipped with a control system that monitors and controls the operational variables. Monitoring and controlling the affecting parameters are critical to the evaluation of the performance of the desalination plant, which will help the operator find and resolve problems immediately. Therefore, this paper was aimed at developing an RO unit by utilizing a wireless sensor network (WSN system. Hence, an RO pilot plant with a feed capacity of 1.2 m3/h was utilized, commissioned, and tested in Kuwait to assess and verify the performance of the integrated WSN in RO membrane desalination system. The investigated system allowed the operators to remotely monitor the operational process of the RO system. The operational data were smoothly recorded and monitored. Furthermore, the technical problems were immediately determined, which reduced the time and effort in rectifying the technical problems relevant to the RO performance. The manpower requirements of such treatment system were dramatically reduced by about 50%. Based on a comparison between manual and wireless monitoring operational processes, the availability of the integrated RO unit with a wireless monitoring was increased by 10%

Effect of pretreatment and membrane orientation on fluxes for concentration of whey with high foulants by using NH3/CO2 in forward osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Seker, M; Buyuksari, E; Topcu, S; Babaoglu, D S; Celebi, D; Keskinler, B; Aydiner, C

2017-11-01

Usage of forward osmosis membrane in FO mode, in which active and support layers of the membrane were in contact with the feed and the draw solutions respectively, provided higher initial water flux (12L/m 2 h) than the usage of membrane in PRO mode (6L/m 2 h) having opposite orientation but fluxes approached to each other after 4h during concentration of whey with NH 3 /CO 2 as draw salt. High organic and inorganic foulants of whey was considered as reason for observed result in addition to lower solute resistivity. Initial water flux (8,5L/m 2 h) was lower when pre-treatment was applied before forward osmosis process but final flux (4L/m 2 h) was equal flux of non pre-treatment. Reduction of solute resistivity or absence of hydraulic pressure can be reasons for lower initial flux. Detection of organic carbon but absence of lactose in draw solution showed passage of molecules being different than lactose into draw solution. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experimental investigation of a spiral-wound pressure-retarded osmosis membrane module for osmotic power generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Yu Chang; Kim, Young; Oh, Dongwook; Lee, Kong Hoon

2013-03-19

Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) uses a semipermeable membrane to produce renewable energy from salinity-gradient energy. A spiral-wound (SW) design is one module configuration of the PRO membrane. The SW PRO membrane module has two different flow paths, axial and spiral, and two different spacers, net and tricot, for draw- and feed-solution streams, respectively. This study used an experimental approach to investigate the relationship between two interacting flow streams in a prototype SW PRO membrane module, and the adverse impact of a tricot fabric spacer (as a feed spacer) on the PRO performance, including water flux and power density. The presence of the tricot spacer inside the membrane envelope caused a pressure drop due to flow resistance and reduced osmotic water permeation due to the shadow effect. The dilution of the draw solution by water permeation resulted in the reduction of the osmotic pressure difference along a pressure vessel. For a 0.6 M NaCl solution and tap water, the water flux and corresponding maximum power density were 3.7 L m(-2)h(-1) and 1.0 W/m(2) respectively at a hydraulic pressure difference of 9.8 bar. The thickness and porosity of the tricot spacer should be optimized to achieve high SW PRO module performance.

Nuclear liquid wastes treatment: study of the reverse osmosis membranes degradation under γ irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Combernoux, Nicolas

2015-01-01

The treatment of nuclear liquid wastes by reverse osmosis (RO) involved issues of the water radiolysis and the membrane ageing due to γ irradiation effects. Membrane performances (permeability, strontium and cesium retention) were assessed after γ irradiation. Irradiation was carried out with an external 60 Co source in different conditions that simulated real used of the process (dose from 0.1 to 1 MGy, dose rate of 0.5 and 5 kGy.h -1 , with or without oxygen or water). Several analytical methods were performed to evaluate irradiation effects (ATR-FTIR, XPS, gas production, water soluble species released from the membrane). The methodology developed led to relevant information due to an innovative analytical protocol. Membrane performances started dropping between 0.2 and 0.5 MGy with oxygen and water (dose rate 0.5 kGy.h -1 ). This shift was linked to chains scissions inside the membrane active layer. The membrane degradation was weaker without oxygen or water or at high dose rate (5 kGy.h -1 ). Results showed that each analysis comforted each other. Membrane performances were also evaluated with three different types of liquid effluents, representing radioactive effluents from a post-disaster situation (groundwater type), disaster situation (seawater) or process water. Experiments were carried out at lab and pilot scales. Results indicated that the treatment of each effluent was possible by RO with an adequate choice of membrane and operating parameters. Finally, the time to reach an integrated dose threshold for the membrane in real conditions was estimated with the RABBI software: a dozen of days in the case of disaster situation to several years in the two other cases. (author) [fr

Synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles as a draw solute in forward osmosis membrane process for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Heeman; Lee, Kune Woo; Moon, Jei Kwon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-05-15

These wastes contain about 0.3 ∼ 0.8 wt% of boric acid. It is known that reverse osmosis (RO) membrane can eliminate boron at high pH and boron of 40 ∼ 90% can be removed by RO membrane in pH condition. RO uses hydraulic pressure to oppose, and exceed, the osmotic pressure of an aqueous feed solution containing boric acid. As an emerging technology forward osmosis (FO) has attracted growing interest in wastewater treatment and desalination because FO operates at low or no hydraulic pressures. FO is a membrane process in which water flows across a semi-permeable membrane from a feed solution of lower osmotic pressure to a draw solution of higher osmotic pressure. However, the challenges of FO still lie in the fabrication of eligible FO membranes and the readily separable draw solutes of high osmotic pressures. Superparamagnetic Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} nanoparticles can be separated from water by an external magnet field easily. If Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} nanoparticles are coated with highly soluble organic substances, thus they can be used as a draw solute by concurrently generating high osmotic pressure and easy separation. The carboxylated polyglycerol coated Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized. The nanoparticles were about 50 nm in diameter and showed the good colloidal stability in aqueous solution. The osmolality and osmotic pressure were enough high to be used as a draw solute in FO. For the future work, we will investigate the performance of our magnetic draw solute in FO to remove boron in the simulated liquid waste.

Hg removal and the effects of coexisting metals in forward osmosis and membrane distillation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Chia-Yu; Chen, Shiao-Shing; Zhang, Dai-Zhou; Kobayashi, Jun

2017-06-01

In this study, we investigate the rejection of Hg, Cd, and Pb and the effect of coexisting metals on Hg removal through forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD) in order to establish a more effective water treatment process. The results of our laboratory experiment indicate that more than 97% of the rejection for each metal is achieved through the FO system, and this rejection is the highest among previous studies using membrane filtrations. Moreover, we examine the matrix effect of the coexisting Cd and Pb on the rejection of Hg in the FO system. Hg 2+ rejection increases with increase in the concentration of the coexisting metals. Furthermore, we study the effect of the Hg concentration and the water temperature on rejection of Hg 2+ . Indeed, the rejection of Hg 2+ is achieved above 95% under any condition. However, approximately 1-10 ppb Hg from the feed solution remains in the draw solution due to permeation. Therefore, we use a FO-MD hybrid system. Approximately 100% rejection of Hg 2+ and a stable water flux are achieved. Thus, the FO-MD hybrid system is considered an important alternative to previous studies using membrane filtration for heavy metals removal.

Using ultra-osmosis to concentrate residues upto 20% solids using 10% of the energy of conventional methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O' Shea, J A

1990-01-01

In the Food Industry, generally that is, Milk, Beet, Grain and Potato processing the major energy input is the removal of water from the raw material. This is particularly important in the milk Industry where liquid milk has a water content of 88%. When the fat and protein are removed it is only 6% solid or 94% water. The consideration of Ultra-Osmosis is beneficial in its energy efficiency compared to thermal vapour recompression and also has the side benefit as being a demineralisation plant as well. Reverse Osmosis is a unique cross lined polyamide membrane. Its rejection characteristics enable it to discriminate among low molecular weight species. The pore structure of the membrane is such that a separation between sodium chloride and calcium sulphate may be accomplished. Such separations are useful in a variety of applications. The utility of the membrane is further enhanced by the simultaneous ability to concentrate the retained species. The Ultra Osmosis process based on a membrane with rejection characteristics intermediate between those common in Ultra Filtration and Reverse Osmosis opens the road to a whole new spectrum of membrane separations. 3 figs.

A comparative study of boron and arsenic (III) rejection from brackish water by reverse osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Teychene, Benoî t; Collet, Gaelle; Gallard, Hervé ; Croue, Jean Philippe

2013-01-01

This study aims to compare at lab-scale the rejection efficiency of several reverse osmosis membranes (RO) toward arsenic (III) and boron during the filtration of a synthetic brackish water. The effect of pH and operating conditions on the rejection of each RO membrane was studied. Two types of membrane were investigated: "brackish water" and "sea water" membranes. Our results showed that the metalloid rejection depends on the membrane type, pH and transmembrane pressure applied. Increasing pH above the dissociation constant (pKa) of each specie improves significantly the metalloid rejection by RO membranes, whatever the membrane type. Moreover, at identical operating conditions (pH, transmembrane pressure), results showed that the brackish water membranes have a higher water flux and exhibit lower metalloid rejection. The highest As(III) rejection value for the tested brackish water membranes was 99% obtained at pH = 9.6 and 40 bars, whereas it was found that the sea water RO membranes could highly reject As(III), more than 99%, even at low pH and low pressure (pH = 7.6 and 24 bars).Regarding Boron rejection, similar conclusions could be drawn. The sea water RO membranes exert higher removal, with a high rejection value above 96% over the tested conditions. More generally, this study showed that, whatever the operating conditions or the tested membranes, the boron and As(III) permeate concentrations are below the WHO guidelines. In addition, new data about the boron and arsenic permeability of each tested RO membrane was brought thanks to a theoretical calculation. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

A comparative study of boron and arsenic (III) rejection from brackish water by reverse osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Teychene, Benoît

2013-02-01

This study aims to compare at lab-scale the rejection efficiency of several reverse osmosis membranes (RO) toward arsenic (III) and boron during the filtration of a synthetic brackish water. The effect of pH and operating conditions on the rejection of each RO membrane was studied. Two types of membrane were investigated: "brackish water" and "sea water" membranes. Our results showed that the metalloid rejection depends on the membrane type, pH and transmembrane pressure applied. Increasing pH above the dissociation constant (pKa) of each specie improves significantly the metalloid rejection by RO membranes, whatever the membrane type. Moreover, at identical operating conditions (pH, transmembrane pressure), results showed that the brackish water membranes have a higher water flux and exhibit lower metalloid rejection. The highest As(III) rejection value for the tested brackish water membranes was 99% obtained at pH = 9.6 and 40 bars, whereas it was found that the sea water RO membranes could highly reject As(III), more than 99%, even at low pH and low pressure (pH = 7.6 and 24 bars).Regarding Boron rejection, similar conclusions could be drawn. The sea water RO membranes exert higher removal, with a high rejection value above 96% over the tested conditions. More generally, this study showed that, whatever the operating conditions or the tested membranes, the boron and As(III) permeate concentrations are below the WHO guidelines. In addition, new data about the boron and arsenic permeability of each tested RO membrane was brought thanks to a theoretical calculation. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Boron in reverse osmosis water desalination: current situational and applying technologies for its removal; El boro en las aguas desaladas por osmosis inversa: situacion actual y tecnologias aplicables para su eliminacion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rodrigo Sanz, M.; Penate Suarez, B.

2007-07-01

In most of the seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants operating in one stage, the water produced presents values bordering or exceeding the limit established by the Spanish legislation for boron content of 1mg/l. As well as on the intrinsic features of the membrane elements, the boron removal in the desalination process depends on various factors. In this article the most relevant ones are described and a synopsis of the applied technologies and designs is introduced in order to fulfil current regulations. (Author)

Integrated forward osmosis-membrane distillation process for human urine treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Qianliang; Liu, Caihong; Zhao, Lei; Ma, Weichao; Liu, Huiling; Ma, Jun

2016-03-15

This study demonstrated a forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD) hybrid system for real human urine treatment. A series of NaCl solutions at different concentrations were adopted for draw solutions in FO process, which were also the feed solutions of MD process. To establish a stable and continuous integrated FO-MD system, individual FO process with different NaCl concentrations and individual direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process with different feed temperatures were firstly investigated separately. Four stable equilibrium conditions were obtained from matching the water transfer rates of individual FO and MD processes. It was found that the integrated system is stable and sustainable when the water transfer rate of FO subsystem is equal to that of MD subsystem. The rejections to main contaminants in human urine were also investigated. Although individual FO process had relatively high rejection to Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Total Nitrogen (TN) and Ammonium Nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) in human urine, these contaminants could also accumulate in draw solution after long term performance. The MD process provided an effective rejection to contaminants in draw solution after FO process and the integrated system revealed nearly complete rejection to TOC, TN and NH4(+)-N. This work provided a potential treatment process for human urine in some fields such as water regeneration in space station and water or nutrient recovery from source-separated urine. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of CO{sub 2}-laser irradiation on properties and performance of thin-film composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jahangiri, Foad; Mousavi, Seyyed Abbas; Farhadi, Fathollah; Sabzi, Behnam; Chenari, Zeinab [Sharif University of Technology, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Vatanpour, Vahid [Kharazmi (Tarbiat Moallem) University, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2016-03-15

CO{sub 2}-laser irradiation was used to modify the surface properties of thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. These membranes were first synthesized via interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine (MPD) monomers and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) over porous polysulfone ultrafiltration support, followed by a CO{sub 2}-irradiation. AFM, ATR-FTIR, SEM and contact angle measurements were used to characterize the surface properties of these membranes. The ATR-FTIR results indicated that CO{sub 2}-laser irradiation did not induce any functional groups on the membrane surface. However, it was found that the laser irradiation enhanced the NaCl salt rejection and slightly reduced the permeate flux. Moreover, the maintenance of the flux in modified membranes was much higher than untreated ones. Specially, after 180 min of filtration, the reduction in initial flux for the unmodified membranes was 22%. However, the reduction in initial flux for the modified membranes was less than 5%. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) filtration revealed an improvement in the antifouling properties of the modified membranes. The changes in the membrane surface morphology showed that the roughness of membrane surface is reduced significantly.

Highly-efficient forward osmosis membrane tailored by magnetically responsive graphene oxide/Fe3O4 nanohybrid

Science.gov (United States)

Rastgar, Masoud; Shakeri, Alireza; Bozorg, Ali; Salehi, Hasan; Saadattalab, Vahid

2018-05-01

Emerging forward osmosis (FO) process as a potentially more energy efficient method has recently gained remarkable attention. Herein, considering the unique features of graphene oxide (GO), a new facile method has been proposed to magnetically modify GO within the polyamide active layer to obtain highly efficient osmotically driven membranes. While exposed to magnetic field, thin film nanocomposite membranes modified by GO/Fe3O4 nanohybrids (TFN-MMGO/Fe3O4) were synthesized by in-situ interfacial polymerization of the prepared monomer solution and organic trimesoyl chloride. Water permeability, salt rejection, and fouling tendency of the modified membranes were then evaluated and compared with both pristine thin film composite (TFC) membrane and the ones modified by GO/Fe3O4 nanohybrides in the absence of magnetic field (TFN-GO/Fe3O4). According to the experimental results, when compared to the TFC and TFN-GO/Fe3O4 membranes, respectively, 117.4% and 63.2% water flux enhancements were achieved in TFN-MMGO/Fe3O4 membrane with optimal GO/Fe3O4 nanohybrid concentration of 100 ppm. In spite of such improvements in water flux, little compromise in reverse salt leakages were observed in the TFN-MMGO/Fe3O4 membranes compared to the TFC one. As well, the TFN-MMGO/Fe3O4 and TFN-GO/Fe3O4 membranes revealed higher fouling resistances than the TFC membrane due to their distinguished manipulated surface characteristics.

Reverse osmosis based water treatment and purification systems for nuclear power installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Epimakhov, V.N.; Olejnik, M.S.; Moskvin, L.N.

2004-01-01

Experiments on the realization and service of specialized water treatment and purification plants based on the principle of reverse osmosis filtration of water at the NPU benches of the A.P. Aleksandrov Scientific Research Technological Institute (SRTI) are analyzed. Membrane-sorption unit including module of micro-, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ion exchange with productivity to 0.5 m 3 /h is developed and operated at SRTI. It is demonstrated that reverse osmosis purification of manufacturing water significantly improves service conditions of NPU and decreases salinity [ru

Reverse osmosis seawater test facility on board NS Otto Hahn

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boeddeker, K.W.; Hilgendorff, W.; Kaschemekat, J.

1977-01-01

To evaluate the performance of reverse osmosis membranes and prototype modules for the desalination of sea water under near technical conditions, a test station has been installed on board the nuclear research vessel NS Otto Hahn. A newly designed plate module with variable membrane area and favorable membrane exchange properties is being used as a test instrument for membranes and operating conditions. (orig./HK) [de

Study of Separation and Fouling of Reverse Osmosis Membranes during Model Hydrolysate Solution Filtration.

Science.gov (United States)

Ajao, Olumoye; Rahni, Mohamed; Marinova, Mariya; Chadjaa, Hassan; Savadogo, Oumarou

2017-12-15

Prehydrolysate, a dilute solution consisting mainly of pentoses, hexoses, and lesser quantities of organic acids, furfural and phenolics, is generated in the Kraft dissolving pulp process. An obstacle facing the valorization of the solution in hemicellulose biorefineries, by conversion of the sugars into bioproducts such as furfural, is the low sugar concentration. Membrane filtration is typically proposed in several hemicellulose based biorefineries for concentrating the solution, although they are usually generated using different wood species, pretreatment methods, and operating conditions. However, the chemical composition of the solutions is generally not considered. Also, the combined effect of composition and operating conditions is rarely investigated for biorefinery applications. The purpose of this work was to determine the impact of the prehydrolysate composition and operating parameters on the component separation and permeate flux during membrane filtration. Using model prehydrolysate solutions, two commercial reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were screened, and one was selected for use, based on its higher sugar and acetic acid retention. A Taguchi L18 experimental design array was then applied to determine the dominant parameters and limiting factors. Results showed that the feed pressure and temperature have the highest impact on permeate flux, but the least effect on sugar retention. Further experiments to quantify flux decline, due to fouling and osmotic pressure, showed that furfural has the highest membrane fouling tendency, and can limit the lifetime of the membrane. Regeneration of the membrane by cleaning with a sodium hydroxide solution is also effective for reversing fouling. It has been demonstrated that RO can efficiently and sustainably concentrate wood prehydrolysate.

Study of Separation and Fouling of Reverse Osmosis Membranes during Model Hydrolysate Solution Filtration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olumoye Ajao

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Prehydrolysate, a dilute solution consisting mainly of pentoses, hexoses, and lesser quantities of organic acids, furfural and phenolics, is generated in the Kraft dissolving pulp process. An obstacle facing the valorization of the solution in hemicellulose biorefineries, by conversion of the sugars into bioproducts such as furfural, is the low sugar concentration. Membrane filtration is typically proposed in several hemicellulose based biorefineries for concentrating the solution, although they are usually generated using different wood species, pretreatment methods, and operating conditions. However, the chemical composition of the solutions is generally not considered. Also, the combined effect of composition and operating conditions is rarely investigated for biorefinery applications. The purpose of this work was to determine the impact of the prehydrolysate composition and operating parameters on the component separation and permeate flux during membrane filtration. Using model prehydrolysate solutions, two commercial reverse osmosis (RO membranes were screened, and one was selected for use, based on its higher sugar and acetic acid retention. A Taguchi L18 experimental design array was then applied to determine the dominant parameters and limiting factors. Results showed that the feed pressure and temperature have the highest impact on permeate flux, but the least effect on sugar retention. Further experiments to quantify flux decline, due to fouling and osmotic pressure, showed that furfural has the highest membrane fouling tendency, and can limit the lifetime of the membrane. Regeneration of the membrane by cleaning with a sodium hydroxide solution is also effective for reversing fouling. It has been demonstrated that RO can efficiently and sustainably concentrate wood prehydrolysate.

Performance Limiting Effects in Power Generation from Salinity Gradients by Pressure Retarded Osmosis

KAUST Repository

Yip, Ngai Yin

2011-12-01

Pressure retarded osmosis has the potential to utilize the free energy of mixing when fresh river water flows into the sea for clean and renewable power generation. Here, we present a systematic investigation of the performance limiting phenomena in pressure retarded osmosis-external concentration polarization, internal concentration polarization, and reverse draw salt flux-and offer insights on the design criteria of a high performance pressure retarded osmosis power generation system. Thin-film composite polyamide membranes were chemically modified to produce a range of membrane transport properties, and the water and salt permeabilities were characterized to determine the underlying permeability-selectivity trade-off relationship. We show that power density is constrained by the trade-off between permeability and selectivity of the membrane active layer. This behavior is attributed to the opposing influence of the beneficial effect of membrane water permeability and the detrimental impact of reverse salt flux coupled with internal concentration polarization. Our analysis reveals the intricate influence of active and support layer properties on power density and demonstrates that membrane performance is maximized by tailoring the water and salt permeabilities to the structural parameters. An analytical parameter that quantifies the relative influence of each performance limiting phenomena is employed to identify the dominant effect restricting productivity. External concentration polarization is shown to be the main factor limiting performance at high power densities. Enhancement of the hydrodynamic flow conditions in the membrane feed channel reduces external concentration polarization and thus, yields improved power density. However, doing so will also incur additional operating costs due to the accompanying hydraulic pressure loss. This study demonstrates that by thoughtful selection of the membrane properties and hydrodynamic conditions, the detrimental

Zeta-potential of fouled thin film composite membrane

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ikeda, K.; Hachisuka, H.; Nakamura, T. [Nitto denko Corp., Ibaraki, (Japan); Kimura, S. [Kogakuin University, Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Environ. Chemical Engineering; Ueyama, K. [Osaka University, Osaka (Japan). Dept. of Chemical Engineering

1999-10-01

The surface zeta-potential of a cross-linked polyamide thin film composite reverse osmosis membrane was measured using an electrophoresis method. It was confirmed that this method could be effectively applied to analyze the fouling of such membranes. It is known that the water flux of membranes drastically decreases as a result of fouling by surfactants. Although the surfactants adsorbed on reverse osmosis membranes could not be detected by conventional methods such as SEM, EDX and FT-IR, their presence could be clarified by the profile measurements of the surface zeta-potential. The profiles of the membrane surface zeta-potentials changed to more positive values in the measured pH range as a result of fouling by cationic or amphoteric surfactants. This measuring method of surface zeta-potentials allowed us to analyze a very small amount of fouling of a thin film composite reverse osmosis membrane. This method could be used to analyze the fouled surface of the thin film composite reverse osmosis membrane which is used for production of ultrapure water and shows a remarkable decrease in flux. It also became clear that this method is easy and effective for the reverse osmosis membrane surface analysis of adsorbed materials such as surfactants. (author)

Treatment of Medical Radioactive Liquid Waste Using Forward Osmosis (FO) Membrane Process

KAUST Repository

Lee, Songbok

2018-04-07

The use of forward osmosis (FO) for concentrating radioactive liquid waste from radiation therapy rooms in hospitals was systematically investigated in this study. The removal of natural and radioactive iodine using FO was first investigated with varying pHs and draw solutions (DSs) to identify the optimal conditions for FO concentration. Results showed that FO had a successful rejection rate for both natural and radioactive iodine (125I) of up to 99.3%. This high rejection rate was achieved at a high pH, mainly due to electric repulsion between iodine and membrane. Higher iodine removal by FO was also attained with a DS that exhibits a reverse salt flux (RSF) adequate to hinder iodine transport. Following this, actual radioactive medical liquid waste was collected and concentrated using FO under these optimal conditions. The radionuclides in the medical waste (131I) were removed effectively, but the water recovery rate was limited due to severe membrane fouling. To enhance the recovery rate, hydraulic washing was applied, but this had only limited success due to combined organic-inorganic fouling of the FO membrane. Finally, the effect of FO concentration on the reduction of septic tank volume was simulated as a function of recovery rate. To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore the potential of FO technology for treating radioactive waste, and thus could be expanded to the dewatering of the radioactive liquid wastes from a variety of sources, such as nuclear power plants.

Performance of high-recovery recycling reverse osmosis with wash water

Science.gov (United States)

Herrmann, Cal C.

1993-01-01

Inclusion of a recycling loop for partially-desalted water from second-stage reverse-osmosis permeate has been shown useful for achieving high-recovery at moderate applied pressures. This approach has now been applied to simulated wash waters, to obtain data on retention by the membranes of solutes in a mixture comparable to anticipated spacecraft hygiene wastewaters, and to generate an estimate of the maximum concentration that can be expected without causing membrane fouling. A first experiment set provides selectivity information from a single membrane and an Igepon detergent, as a function of final concentration. A reject concentration of 3.1% Total Organic Carbon has been reached, at a pressure of 1.4 Mega Pascals, without membrane fouling. Further experiments have generated selectivity values for the recycle configuration from two washwater simulations, as a function of applied pump pressure. Reverse osmosis removal has also been tested for washwater containing detergent formulated for plant growth compatibility (containing nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium functional groups.)

Reverse osmosis separation of radium from dilute aqueous solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Subramanian, K.S.; Sastri, V.S.

1980-01-01

Porous cellulose acetate membranes obtained from Osmonics Inc. were characterized in terms of pure water permeability constant, solute transport parameter, and mass transfer coefficient with aqueous sodium chloride solution as the reference system. Reverse osmosis separation behavior of radium-226 as nitrate, chloride, and sulfate salts was studied. Reverse osmosis method of removing radium-226 from aqueous solutions has been compared with other methods, and it has been shown to be one of the best methods for alleviating radium contamination problems

Studies on the reverse osmosis treatment of uranyl nitrate solution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prabhakar, S.; Panicker, S.T.; Misra, B.M.; Ramani, P.S.

1992-01-01

The aqueous effluent generated in uranium processing, particularly in the nuclear fuel fabrication step, contains mainly uranium nitrate. This requires treatment before discharge into the environment to meet stringent standards. This paper presents the performance of cellulose acetate membranes with regard to rejection of uranium under reverse osmotic conditions for feed concentrations up to 200 mg/l of uranium, which corresponds to the levels normally prevalent in the effluents. The use of additives like the disodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and sodium sulfate for the improvement of reverse osmosis performance of the above membranes was also investigated. In the light of the experimental results, the suitability of reverse osmosis for the decontamination of uranium effluents is discussed

INFLUENCE AT DIFFERENT OPERATION CONDITIONS ON THE ACEROLA JUICE CONCENTRATION BY REVERSE OSMOSIS, USING SPIRAL MEMBRANE OF COMPOSITE FILM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. R.S. GOMES

2009-03-01

Full Text Available

The concentration of acerola juice, involves removal of water with the objective of reducing packing, storage and transport costs. The reverse osmosis (RO is a process of increasing interest in food industry and among the advantages they stand out: the low consumption of energy and the minimum thermal damages is caused to the products. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of different operation conditions in relation to the permeate flux, in the concentration process of the acerola juice by RO. All the RO experiments were carried out with retentate recycling. The concentration by RO, were carried on the transmembrane pressures of 20, 30 and 40 bar and at 23ºC and 40ºC, being used a membrane of composite film in spiral module (99% NaCl rejection. The acerola pulp was defrosted and treated with Citrozym Ultra L enzyme (100 ppm, 45ºC ,1 hour, then it was ultrafiltrated at 3 bar at the same temperature, in 0.1 µm ceramic membrane, and so it was concentrated by RO. It was verified that the pressure and the temperature influenced the concentration and the permeate flux obtained in the RO process. The flux decreased along the processing, once the feeding becomes more concentrate, increasing the viscosity, osmotic pressure and retained sugar. KEYWORDS: Acerola juice concentration; reverse osmosis; membrane of composite film.

Impact of reverse nutrient diffusion on membrane biofouling in fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Li, Sheng

2017-05-31

Biofouling in fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) for water reuse was investigated by spiking pure bacteria species Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1+GFP and using three different fertilizers KNO3, KCl and KH2PO4 as draw solutions. The performance of FO process for treating synthetic wastewater was assessed and their influence on the membrane fouling and in particular biofouling was evaluated relative to the type of different fertilizers used and their rates of reverse diffusion. FO performances using KNO3 as draw solute exhibited severer flux decline (63%) than when using KCl (45%) and KH2PO4 (30%). Membrane autopsy indicated that the mass of organic foulants and biomass on fouled membrane surface using KNO3 as draw solute (947.5mg/m2 biopolymers, 72µm biofilm thickness and 53.3mg/m2 adenosine triphosphate) were significantly higher than that using KCl (450mg/m2 biopolymers, 33µm biofilm thickness and 28.2mg/m2 ATP) and KH2PO4 (440mg/m2 biopolymers, 35µm biofilm thickness and 33.5mg/m2 ATP). This higher flux decline is likely related to the higher reverse diffusion of KNO3 (19.8g/m2/h) than KCl (5.1g/m2/h) and KH2PO4 (3.7g/m2/h). The reverse diffused potassium could promote the organics and bacterial adhesion on FO membrane via charge screening effect and compression of electrical double layer. Moreover, reverse diffused nitrate provided increased N:P nutrient ratio was favorable for the bacteria to grow on the feed side of the FO membrane.

Assessing the removal of organic micro-pollutants from anaerobic membrane bioreactor effluent by fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Kim, Youngjin

2017-03-23

In this study, the behavior of organic micro-pollutants (OMPs) transport including membrane fouling was assessed in fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) during treatment of the anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) effluent. The flux decline was negligible when the FO membrane was oriented with active layer facing feed solution (AL-FS) while severe flux decline was observed with active layer facing draw solution (AL-DS) with di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer as DS due to struvite scaling inside the membrane support layer. DAP DS however exhibited the lowest OMPs forward flux or higher OMPs rejection rate compared to other two fertilizers (i.e., mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP) and KCl). MAP and KCl fertilizer DS had higher water fluxes that induced higher external concentration polarization (ECP) and enhanced OMPs flux through the FO membrane. Under the AL-DS mode of membrane orientation, OMPs transport was further increased with MAP and KCl as DS due to enhanced concentrative internal concentration polarization while with DAP the internal scaling enhanced mass transfer resistance thereby lowering OMPs flux. Physical or hydraulic cleaning could successfully recover water flux for FO membranes operated under the AL-FS mode but only partial flux recovery was observed for membranes operated under AL-DS mode because of internal scaling and fouling in the support layer. Osmotic backwashing could however significantly improve the cleaning efficiency.

Environmental and economic impacts of fertilizer drawn forward osmosis and nanofiltration hybrid system

KAUST Repository

Kim, Jung Eun; Phuntsho, Sherub; Chekli, Laura; Hong, Seungkwan; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Leiknes, TorOve; Choi, Joon Yong; Shon, Ho Kyong

2017-01-01

Environmental and economic impacts of the fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) and nanofiltration (NF) hybrid system were conducted and compared with conventional reverse osmosis (RO) hybrid scenarios using microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) as a pre-treatment process. The results showed that the FDFO-NF hybrid system using thin film composite forward osmosis (TFC) FO membrane has less environmental impact than conventional RO hybrid systems due to lower consumption of energy and cleaning chemicals. The energy requirement for the treatment of mine impaired water by the FDFO-NF hybrid system was 1.08 kWh/m, which is 13.6% less energy than an MF-RO and 21% less than UF-RO under similar initial feed solution. In a closed-loop system, the FDFO-NF hybrid system using a TFC FO membrane with an optimum NF recovery rate of 84% had the lowest unit operating expenditure of AUD $0.41/m. Besides, given the current relatively high price and low flux performance of the cellulose triacetate and TFC FO membranes, the FDFO-NF hybrid system still holds opportunities to reduce operating expenditure further. Optimizing NF recovery rates and improving the water flux of the membrane would decrease the unit OPEX costs, although the TFC FO membrane would be less sensitive to this effect.

Environmental and economic impacts of fertilizer drawn forward osmosis and nanofiltration hybrid system

KAUST Repository

Kim, Jung Eun

2017-05-08

Environmental and economic impacts of the fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) and nanofiltration (NF) hybrid system were conducted and compared with conventional reverse osmosis (RO) hybrid scenarios using microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) as a pre-treatment process. The results showed that the FDFO-NF hybrid system using thin film composite forward osmosis (TFC) FO membrane has less environmental impact than conventional RO hybrid systems due to lower consumption of energy and cleaning chemicals. The energy requirement for the treatment of mine impaired water by the FDFO-NF hybrid system was 1.08 kWh/m, which is 13.6% less energy than an MF-RO and 21% less than UF-RO under similar initial feed solution. In a closed-loop system, the FDFO-NF hybrid system using a TFC FO membrane with an optimum NF recovery rate of 84% had the lowest unit operating expenditure of AUD $0.41/m. Besides, given the current relatively high price and low flux performance of the cellulose triacetate and TFC FO membranes, the FDFO-NF hybrid system still holds opportunities to reduce operating expenditure further. Optimizing NF recovery rates and improving the water flux of the membrane would decrease the unit OPEX costs, although the TFC FO membrane would be less sensitive to this effect.

Biofouling of reverse-osmosis membranes during tertiary wastewater desalination: microbial community composition.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Ashhab, Ashraf; Herzberg, Moshe; Gillor, Osnat

2014-03-01

Reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination is frequently used for the production of high-quality water from tertiary treated wastewater (TTWW). However, the RO desalination process is often hampered by biofouling, including membrane conditioning, microbial adhesion, and biofilm growth. The vast majority of biofilm exploration concentrated on the role of bacteria in biofouling neglecting additional microbial contributors, i.e., fungi and archaea. To better understand the RO biofouling process, bacterial, archaeal and fungal diversity was characterized in a laboratory-scale RO desalination plant exploring the TTWW (RO feed), the RO membrane and the RO feed tube biofilms. We sequenced 77,400 fragments of the ribosome small subunit-encoding gene (16S and 18S rRNA) to identify the microbial community members in these matrices. Our results suggest that the bacterial, archaeal but not fungal community significantly differ from the RO membrane biofouling layer to the feedwater and tube biofilm (P < 0.01). Moreover, the RO membrane supported a more diverse community compared to the communities monitored in the feedwater and the biofilm attached to the RO feedwater tube. The tube biofilm was dominated by Actinobacteria (91.2 ± 4.6%), while the Proteobacteria phylum dominated the feedwater and RO membrane (at relative abundance of 92.3 ± 4.4% and 71.5 ± 8.3%, respectively), albeit comprising different members. The archaea communities were dominated by Crenarchaeota (53.0 ± 6.9%, 32.5 ± 7.2% and 69%, respectively) and Euryarchaeota (43.3 ± 6.3%, 23.2 ± 4.8% and 24%, respectively) in all three matrices, though the communities' composition differed. But the fungal communities composition was similar in all matrices, dominated by Ascomycota (97.6 ± 2.7%). Our results suggest that the RO membrane is a selective surface, supporting unique bacterial, and to a lesser extent archaeal communities, yet it does not select for a fungal community. Copyright © 2013

Highly permeable double-skinned forward osmosis membranes for anti-fouling in the emulsified oil-water separation process

KAUST Repository

Duong, Hoang Hanh Phuoc; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung; Wei, Shawn; Irish, Lana

2014-01-01

Forward osmosis (FO) has attracted wide attention in recent years. However, the FO performance may be restricted due to internal concentration polarization (ICP) and fast fouling propensity that occurs in the membrane sublayer. Particularly, these problems significantly affect the membrane performance when treating highly contaminated oily wastewater. Recently, double-skinned flat sheet cellulose acetate (CA) membranes consisting of two selective skins via the phase inversion method have demonstrated less ICP and fouling propensity over typical single-skinned membranes. However, these membranes exhibit low water fluxes of <12 LMH under 2 M NaCl draw solution. Therefore, a novel double-skinned FO membrane with a high water flux has been aimed for in this study for emulsified oil-water treatment. The double-skinned FO membrane comprises a fully porous sublayer sandwiched between (i) a truly dense skin for salt rejection and (ii) a fairly loose dense skin for emulsified oil particle rejection. The former dense skin is a polyamide synthesized via interfacial polymerization, while the latter one is a self-assembled sulfonated pentablock copolymer (Nexar copolymer) layer. The resultant double-skinned membrane exhibits a high water flux of 17.2 LMH and a low reverse salt transport of 4.85 gMH using 0.5 M NaCl as the draw solution and DI water as the feed. The double-skinned membrane outperforms the single-skinned membrane with much lower fouling propensity for emulsified oil-water separation. © 2014 American Chemical Society.

Highly permeable double-skinned forward osmosis membranes for anti-fouling in the emulsified oil-water separation process

KAUST Repository

Duong, Hoang Hanh Phuoc

2014-04-15

Forward osmosis (FO) has attracted wide attention in recent years. However, the FO performance may be restricted due to internal concentration polarization (ICP) and fast fouling propensity that occurs in the membrane sublayer. Particularly, these problems significantly affect the membrane performance when treating highly contaminated oily wastewater. Recently, double-skinned flat sheet cellulose acetate (CA) membranes consisting of two selective skins via the phase inversion method have demonstrated less ICP and fouling propensity over typical single-skinned membranes. However, these membranes exhibit low water fluxes of <12 LMH under 2 M NaCl draw solution. Therefore, a novel double-skinned FO membrane with a high water flux has been aimed for in this study for emulsified oil-water treatment. The double-skinned FO membrane comprises a fully porous sublayer sandwiched between (i) a truly dense skin for salt rejection and (ii) a fairly loose dense skin for emulsified oil particle rejection. The former dense skin is a polyamide synthesized via interfacial polymerization, while the latter one is a self-assembled sulfonated pentablock copolymer (Nexar copolymer) layer. The resultant double-skinned membrane exhibits a high water flux of 17.2 LMH and a low reverse salt transport of 4.85 gMH using 0.5 M NaCl as the draw solution and DI water as the feed. The double-skinned membrane outperforms the single-skinned membrane with much lower fouling propensity for emulsified oil-water separation. © 2014 American Chemical Society.

Development of a new feed channel spacer for reverse osmosis elements. Phase 2 final report, October 1, 1994--December 31, 1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Milstead, C.E.; Riley, R.L.

1998-02-11

During Phase 1, computer modeling techniques were used as the prime instrument of evaluation of designs for a new feed channel spacer to replace the 30 mil thick standard mesh (Vexar) spacer currently used in ROWPU [Reverse Osmosis Water Processing Unit] spiral-wound elements. A hemispherical peg model, based on a Bed of Nails concept developed in Phase 1, was selected for prototype production of spiral-wound elements for field testing. Evaluation in the See-Thru test cell to observe pressure drops through the spacer, feed mixing patterns and ease of cleaning fouled membrane samples showed considerable benefit over Vexar. This design would be suitable for production by roll embossing (or rotary punching) methods instead of expensive injection molding techniques. A 10{1/2} inch die set was fabricated to prove this concept using a 12 ton press brake. Due to a number of factors, however, the equipment did not work as anticipated and numerous modifications are currently in progress. This work will continue at no cost to the government until completed. A seawater test system has been constructed for field testing of various commercially available feed channel spacers for comparison with the Vexar spacer.

Validating a mathematical model for inverse osmosis in an experimental flat membrane plant; Validacion de un modelo matematico para osmosis inversa con una planta piloto de membranas planas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gomez Gotor, A.; Salama, B.; Argudo, C.

1999-05-01

The different theories regarding inverse osmosis have given rise to mathematical models. This article describes an experiment using the model developed by Slater et al. based on the solution-diffusion theory. A DOW DANMARK SEPARATION SYSTEMS OI LAB-UNIT M 20 was employed together with a pair of type HR 98 PP flat membranes also from DOW DANMARK A/S SEPARATION SYSTEMS. The solution used to study the operational variables was KCI. The findings in regard to volumetric flows and permeate concentrations conformed to the expected trends. The model`s constants were also determined and their predictive value verified. (Author) 9 refs.

Advantages of the appropriate selection of reverse osmosis membranes in desalination plants with open intake; Ventajs de una adecuada seleccion de membranas de osmosis inversa en plants desaladoras con captacion superficial abierta

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Munoz Elguera, A.; Nishida, M.

2001-07-01

It is hoped to make it sufficiently clear with this article that it is of fundamental importance that the reverse osmosis membranes and the conditions under which they will operate be appropriately selected. It is obvious that this choice must be made primarily in function of the quality of the water that will be processed in the water treatment plant ( for which reason it is of vital importance that a detailed study and careful characterisation of this water be carried out previously). This article report the highly encouraging results achieved with Cellulose Tri-acetate membranes in a singular Hollow fibre configuration, known commercially as Hollosep HM 10255FI (of Japanese manufacture), which were evaluated in parallel with LP3 potabilisation membranes that process sea water collected using an open intake system with high levels of microbiological pollution. (Author) 7 refs.

Effect of gamma irradiation at intermediate doses on the performance of reverse osmosis membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Combernoux, Nicolas; Labed, Véronique; Schrive, Luc; Wyart, Yvan; Carretier, Emilie; Moulin, Philippe

2016-01-01

The goal of this study is to explain the degradation of Polyamide (PA) composite reverse osmosis membrane (RO) in function of the irradiation dose. Irradiations were performed with a gamma 60 Co source in wet conditions and under oxygen atmosphere. For different doses of 0.2 and 0.5 MGy with a constant dose rate of 0.5 kGy h −1 , RO membranes performances (NaCl retention, permeability) were studied before and after irradiation. ATR-FTIR, ion chromatography and gas chromatography were used to characterize structural modification. Results showed that the permeability of RO membranes irradiated at 0.2 MGy exhibited a small decrease, related to scissions of the PVA coating. However, retention did not change at this dose. At 0.5 MGy, permeability showed a large increase of a factor around 2 and retention began to decrease from 99% to 95%. Chromatography measurements revealed a strong link between permselectivity properties variation, ion leakage and oxygen consumption. Add to ATR-FTIR observations, these results emphasized that the cleavages of amide and ester bonds were observed at 0.5 MGy, more precisely the loss of hydrogen bonds between polyamide chains. By different analysis, modifications of the polysulfone layer occur until a dose of 0.2 MGy. - Highlights: • Irradiation of RO membranes at intermediate dose (0.2 and 0.5 MGy). • For a dose rate of 0.5 kGy h −1 RO membranes are radiation resistant until 0.2 MGy. • Cleavages of polymer bonds in the active layer at 0.5 MGy. • Decrease in permselectivity properties of the membrane at 0.5 MGy. • High oxygen consumption between 0.2 and 0.5 MGy related to the membranes degradation.

Novel cellulose ester substrates for high performance flat-sheet thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes

KAUST Repository

Ong, Rui Chin

2015-01-01

A novel hydrophilic cellulose ester with a high intrinsic water permeability and a water partition coefficient was discovered to construct membrane supports for flat-sheet thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes for water reuse and seawater desalination with high performance. The performance of TFC-FO membranes prepared from the hydrophilic cellulose ester containing a high degree of OH and a moderate degree of Pr substitutions clearly surpasses those prepared from cellulose esters and other polymers with moderate hydrophilicity. Post-treatments of TFC-FO membranes using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and glycerol followed by heat treatment further enhance the water flux without compromising the selectivity. Positron annihilation lifetime analyses have confirmed that the SDS/glycerol post-treatment increases the free volume size and fractional free volume of the polyamide selective layer. The newly developed post-treated TFC-FO membranes exhibit a remarkably high water flux up to 90 LMH when the selective layer is oriented towards the draw solution (i.e., PRO mode) using 1. M NaCl as the draw solution and DI water as the feed. For seawater desalination, the membranes display a high water flux up to 35 LMH using a 2. M NaCl draw solution. These water fluxes exceeded the water fluxes achieved by other types of FO membranes reported in literatures. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Application of a nanofibrous composite membrane to the fertilizer-driven forward osmosis process for irrigation water use.

Science.gov (United States)

An, Hee-Kyung; Lee, Chang-Gu; Park, Seong-Jik

2017-11-01

In this study, we fabricated a nanofibrous composite (NFC) membrane as a substrate to produce forward osmosis (FO) membranes, and we also assessed the use of liquid fertilizer as a draw solution for the FO process in order to produce agricultural irrigation water. Commercial cellulose triacetate (CTA) and thin-film composite (TFC) FO membranes were included in this study. Under FO tests, the NFC, CTA, and TFC membranes achieved initial osmotic water flux values of 35.31, 6.85, and 3.31 L/m 2 ·h and final osmotic water flux values of 12.62, 6.31, and 3.85 L/m 2  h, respectively. The reason for the high osmotic water flux of the NFC membrane is because its nanofiber layer has low tortuosity, high porosity, and a low thickness, resulting in a reduction in the internal concentration polarization phenomenon. When liquid fertilizer was used as the draw solution, the water flux values in the FO experiments for the NFC, CTA, and TFC membranes were 15.54, 5.46, and 2.54 L/m 2  h. Finally, our results revealed that the FO process using liquid fertilizer as a draw solution can be applied to produce agricultural irrigation water from brackish water and the newly fabricated NFC membrane can be applied to the FO process.

REMOVAL OF CHLORINATED AND BROMINATED ALKANES FROM DRINKING WATER USING REVERSE OSMOSIS

Science.gov (United States)

Membrane use in water treatment has historically focused on desalination. With the development of new membrane materials, attention began to focus on reverse osmosis and pervaporation as alternatives to traditional water treatment processes. This paper addresses the use of reve...

Rejection of pharmaceuticals in nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membrane drinking water treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Radjenović, J; Petrović, M; Ventura, F; Barceló, D

2008-08-01

This paper investigates the removal of a broad range of pharmaceuticals during nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) applied in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) using groundwater. Pharmaceutical residues detected in groundwater used as feed water in all five sampling campaigns were analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs such as ketoprofen, diclofenac, acetaminophen and propyphenazone, beta-blockers sotalol and metoprolol, an antiepileptic drug carbamazepine, the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole, a lipid regulator gemfibrozil and a diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. The highest concentrations in groundwater were recorded for hydrochlorothiazide (58.6-2548ngL(-1)), ketoprofen (85%). Deteriorations in retentions on NF and RO membranes were observed for acetaminophen (44.8-73 %), gemfibrozil (50-70 %) and mefenamic acid (30-50%). Furthermore, since several pharmaceutical residues were detected in the brine stream of NF and RO processes at concentrations of several hundreds nanogram per litre, its disposal to a near-by river can represent a possible risk implication of this type of treatment.

Progress in the development of the reverse osmosis process for spacecraft wash water recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Pecoraro, J. N.; Podall, H. E.; Spurlock, J. M.

1972-01-01

Research work on ambient- and pasteurization-temperature reverse osmosis processes for wash water recovery in a spacecraft environment is reviewed, and the advantages and drawbacks of each are noted. A key requirement in each case is to provide a membrane of appropriate stability and semipermeability. Reverse osmosis systems intended for such use must also take into account the specific limitations and requirements imposed by the small volume of water to be processed and the high water recovery desired. The incorporation of advanced high-temperature membranes into specially designed modules is discussed.

Reverse osmosis using for water demineralization for supplying the NPP and TPP steam generators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mamet, A.P.; Sitnyakovskij, Yu.A.

2000-01-01

Paper analyzes the conditions affecting the efficiency of water reverse-osmosis demineralization for NPP and TPP steam generators and presents an example of efficient application of a membrane reverse-osmosis facility serving as the first stage of water demineralization at the Mosehnergo Joint-Stock Company heating and power plant no. 23 to feed boilers [ru

Processing radioactive wastes using membrane (UF/HF/RO) systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doyle, R.D.

1988-01-01

Over the years many technologies have been utilized to process low level radioactive waste streams generated by the nuclear industry, including: demineralization, evaporation, reverse osmosis and filtration. In the early 1980's interest was generated in membrane technologies and their application to radioactive wastes. This interest was generated based on the capabilities shown by membrane systems in non-radioactive environments and the promise that reverse osmosis systems showed in early testing with radioactive wastes. Membrane technologies have developed from the early development of reverse osmosis system to also include specifically designed membranes for ultrafiltration and hyperfiltration applications

Control of biofouling on reverse osmosis polyamide membranes modified with biocidal nanoparticles and antifouling polymer brushes

KAUST Repository

Rahaman, Md. Saifur

2014-01-01

Thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are prone to biofouling due to their inherent physicochemical surface properties. In order to address the biofouling problem, we have developed novel surface coatings functionalized with biocidal silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and antifouling polymer brushes via polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly. The novel surface coating was prepared with polyelectrolyte LBL films containing poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(ethylene imine) (PEI), with the latter being either pure PEI or silver nanoparticles coated with PEI (Ag-PEI). The coatings were further functionalized by grafting of polymer brushes, using either hydrophilic poly(sulfobetaine) or low surface energy poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The presence of both LBL films and sulfobetaine polymer brushes at the interface significantly increased the hydrophilicity of the membrane surface, while PDMS brushes lowered the membrane surface energy. Overall, all surface modifications resulted in significant reduction of irreversible bacterial cell adhesion. In microbial adhesion tests with E. coli bacteria, a normalized cell adhesion in the range of only 4 to 16% on the modified membrane surfaces was observed. Modified surfaces containing silver nanoparticles also exhibited strong antimicrobial activity. Membranes coated with LBL films of PAA/Ag-PEI achieved over 95% inactivation of bacteria attached to the surface within 1 hour of contact time. Both the antifouling and antimicrobial results suggest the potential of using these novel surface coatings in controlling the fouling of RO membranes. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2014.

Wastewater reclamation using discarded reverse osmosis membranes for reuse in irrigation in Djibouti, an arid country.

Science.gov (United States)

Awaleh, Mohamed Osman; Ahmed, Moussa Mahdi; Soubaneh, Youssouf Djibril; Hoch, Farhan Bouraleh; Bouh, Samatar Mohamed; Dirieh, Elias Said

2013-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to establish the feasibility of recovering discarded reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in order to reduce the salinity of domestic treated wastewater. This study shows that the reuse of RO membranes is of particular interest for arid countries having naturally high mineralized water such as Djibouti. The pilot desalination unit reduces the electrical conductivity, the turbidity and the total dissolved salt respectively at 75-85, 96.7 and 95.4%. The water produced with this desalination unit contains an average of 254 cfu/100 mL total coliforms and 87 cfu/100 mL fecal coliforms. This effluent meets the World Health Organization standards for treated wastewater reuse for agricultural purposes. The annual cost of the desalination unit was evaluated as US $/m(3) 0.82, indicating the relatively high cost of this process. Nevertheless, such processes are required to produce an effluent, with a high reuse potential.

Reverse osmosis: experience of cold commissioning trials in waste immobilisation plant, Trombay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anand, G.; Bose, Aditi; Verma, B.B.

1999-01-01

Industrial scale reverse osmosis plant for low level radioactive waste put up in Waste Immobilisation Plant (WIP), Trombay is the first of its kind in India. The performance test with inactive simulated waste is meeting the desired performance. The preliminary treatment of LLW stream at W.I.P., Trombay is proposed to be carried out with reverse osmosis membrane separation process. The design, recovery and rejection ratio of LLW is described

A study of reverse osmosis applicability to light water reactor radwaste processing. Technical report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Markind, J.; Van Tran, T.

1979-04-01

The use of membrane technology has demonstrated significant process potential in nuclear radioactive waste applications. Reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration can provide filtration capability without the need of filter aids, minimize the requirements of chemical regeneration and/or disposal of expensive resins and can preconcentrate wastes without requiring major process equipment with large auxiliary heat supplies. Because of these capabilities, a study was undertaken to review, evaluate and document the existing experience, both nuclear and appropriate non-nuclear, of the membrane industry as it applies to the processing of reactor radwaste by membrane technology and, in particular, reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration. Relevant information was collected from both the literature and extensive communications with users and suppliers of membrane equipment. The systems reviewed ranged from experimental laboratory units to full scale process units

Effects of physical and chemical aspects on membrane fouling and cleaning using interfacial free energy analysis in forward osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wanzhu; Dong, Bingzhi

2018-05-20

Natural organic matter (NOM) in micro-polluted water purification using membranes is a critical issue to handle. Understanding the fouling mechanism in the forward osmosis (FO) process, particularly identifying the predominant factor that controls membrane fouling, could have significant effects on exerting the advantages of FO technique. Cellulose triacetate no-woven (CTA-NW) membrane is applied to experiments with a high removal efficiency (> 99%) for the model foulant. Tannic acid (TA) is used as a surrogate foulant for NOM in the membrane fouling process, thus enabling the analysis of the effects of physical and chemical aspects of water flux, retention, and adsorption. The membrane fouling behavior is affected mainly by the combined effects of the osmotic dragging force and the interaction of the pH in the working solution, foulants, and calcium ions, as demonstrated by the water flux loss and the changes of membrane retention and adsorption. The fouled CTA-NW membrane (in PRO mode) could be flux-recovered by > 85% through physical cleaning methods. The interfacial free energy analysis theory was used to analyze the membrane fouling behavior with calculating the interfacial cohesion and adhesion free energies. The cohesion free energy refers to the deposition of foulants (TA or TA combined with calcium ions) on a fouled membrane. In addition, the adhesion free energy could be used to evaluate the interaction between foulants and a clean membrane.

Role of membrane fouling substances on the rejection of N-nitrosamines by reverse osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Fujioka, Takahiro; Kodamatani, Hitoshi; Aizawa, Hidenobu; Gray, Stephen; Ishida, Kenneth P; Nghiem, Long D

2017-07-01

The impact of fouling substances on the rejection of four N-nitrosamines by a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was evaluated by characterizing individual organic fractions in a secondary wastewater effluent and deploying a novel high-performance liquid chromatography-photochemical reaction-chemiluminescence (HPLC-PR-CL) analytical technique. The HPLC-PR-CL analytical technique allowed for a systematic examination of the correlation between the fouling level and the permeation of N-nitrosamines in the secondary wastewater effluent and synthetic wastewaters through an RO membrane. Membrane fouling caused by the secondary wastewater effluent led to a notable decrease in the permeation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) while a smaller but nevertheless discernible decrease in the permeation of N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR) and N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR) was also observed. Fluorescence spectrometry analysis revealed that major foulants in the secondary wastewater effluent were humic and fulvic acid-like substances. Analysis using the size exclusion chromatography technique also identified polysaccharides and proteins as additional fouling substances. Thus, further examination was conducted using solutions containing model foulants (i.e., sodium alginate, bovine serum albumin, humic acid and two fulvic acids). Similar to the secondary wastewater effluent, membrane fouling with fulvic acid solutions resulted in a decrease in N-nitrosamine permeation. In contrast, membrane fouling with the other model foulants resulted in a negligible impact on N-nitrosamine permeation. Overall, these results suggest that the impact of fouling on the permeation of N-nitrosamines by RO is governed by specific small organic fractions (e.g. fulvic acid-like organics) in the secondary wastewater effluent. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coagulation and ultrafiltration in seawater reverse osmosis pretreatment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tabatabai, S.A.A.

2014-01-01

Seawater desalination is a globally expanding coastal industry with an installed capacity of over 80 million m3/day. Algal blooms pose a challenge to the operation of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes and pre-treatment systems due to high concentrations of algal cells and algal organic

Modeling pH variation in reverse osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nir, Oded; Bishop, Noga Fridman; Lahav, Ori; Freger, Viatcheslav

2015-12-15

The transport of hydronium and hydroxide ions through reverse osmosis membranes constitutes a unique case of ionic species characterized by uncommonly high permeabilities. Combined with electromigration, this leads to complex behavior of permeate pH, e.g., negative rejection, as often observed for monovalent ions in nanofiltration of salt mixtures. In this work we employed a rigorous phenomenological approach combined with chemical equilibrium to describe the trans-membrane transport of hydronium and hydroxide ions along with salt transport and calculate the resulting permeate pH. Starting from the Nernst-Planck equation, a full non-linear transport equation was derived, for which an approximate solution was proposed based on the analytical solution previously developed for trace ions in a dominant salt. Using the developed approximate equation, transport coefficients were deduced from experimental results obtained using a spiral wound reverse osmosis module operated under varying permeate flux (2-11 μm/s), NaCl feed concentrations (0.04-0.18 M) and feed pH values (5.5-9.0). The approximate equation agreed well with the experimental results, corroborating the finding that diffusion and electromigration, rather than a priori neglected convection, were the major contributors to the transport of hydronium and hydroxide. The approach presented here has the potential to improve the predictive capacity of reverse osmosis transport models for acid-base species, thereby improving process design/control. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conjugation of silica nanoparticles with cellulose acetate/polyethylene glycol 300 membrane for reverse osmosis using MgSO4 solution.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabir, Aneela; Shafiq, Muhammad; Islam, Atif; Jabeen, Faiza; Shafeeq, Amir; Ahmad, Adnan; Zahid Butt, Muhammad Taqi; Jacob, Karl I; Jamil, Tahir

2016-01-20

Thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) method was used to synthesize polymer matrix (PM) membranes for reverse osmosis from cellulose acetate/polyethylene glycol (CA/PEG300) conjugated with silica nanoparticles (SNPs). Experimental data showed that the conjugation of SNPs changed the surface properties as dense and asymmetric composite structure. The results were explicitly determined by the permeability flux and salt rejection efficiency of the PM-SNPs membranes. The effect of SNPs conjugation on MgSO4 salt rejection was more significant in magnitude than on permeation flux i.e. 2.38 L/m(2)h. FTIR verified that SNPs were successfully conjugated on the surface of PM membrane. DSC of PM-SNPs shows an improved Tg from 76.2 to 101.8 °C for PM and PM-S4 respectively. Thermal stability of the PM-SNPs membranes was observed by TGA which was significantly enhanced with the conjugation of SNPs. The micrographs of SEM and AFM showed the morphological changes and increase in the valley and ridges on membrane surface. Experimental data showed that the PM-S4 (0.4 wt% SNPs) membrane has maximum salt rejection capacity and was selected as an optimal membrane. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antifouling coatings via plasma polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization on thin film composite membranes for reverse osmosis

Science.gov (United States)

Hirsch, Ulrike; Ruehl, Marco; Teuscher, Nico; Heilmann, Andreas

2018-04-01

A major drawback to otherwise highly efficient membrane-based desalination techniques like reverse osmosis (RO) is the susceptibility of the membranes to biofouling. In this work, a combination of plasma activation, plasma bromination and surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (si-ATRP) of hydrophilic and zwitterionic monomers, namely hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) and [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]-dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide (SBMA), was applied to generate non-specific, anti-adhesive coatings on thin film composite (TFC) membranes. The antifouling effect of the coatings was shown by short-time batch as well as long-time steady state cultivation experiments with the microorganism Pseudomonas fluorescens. It could be shown that plasma functionalization and polymerization is possible on delicate thin film composite membranes without restricting their filtration performance. All modified membranes showed an increased resistance towards the adhesion of Pseudomonas fluorescens. On average, the biofilm coverage was reduced by 51.4-12.6% (for HEMA, SBMA, and MPC), the highest reduction was monitored for MPC with a biofilm reduction by 85.4%. The hydrophilic coatings applied did not only suppress the adhesion of Pseudomonas fluorescens, but also significantly increase the permeate flux of the membranes relative to uncoated membranes. The stability of the coatings was however not ideal and will have to be improved for future commercial use.

Biofouling in forward osmosis systems: An experimental and numerical study

KAUST Repository

Bucs, Szilard; Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.; Picioreanu, Cristian

2016-01-01

This study evaluates with numerical simulations supported by experimental data the impact of biofouling on membrane performance in a cross-flow forward osmosis (FO) system. The two-dimensional numerical model couples liquid flow with solute

Indirect desalination of Red Sea water with forward osmosis and low pressure reverse osmosis for water reuse

KAUST Repository

Yangali-Quintanilla, Victor; Li, Zhenyu; Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Li, Qingyu; Amy, Gary L.

2011-01-01

The use of energy still remains the main component of the costs of desalting water. Forward osmosis (FO) can help to reduce the costs of desalination, and extracting water from impaired sources can be beneficial in this regard. Experiments with FO membranes using a secondary wastewater effluent as a feed water and Red Sea water as a draw solution demonstrated that the technology is promising. FO coupled with low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) was implemented for indirect desalination. The system consumes only 50% (~1.5 kWh/m3) of the energy used for high pressure seawater RO (SWRO) desalination (2.5-4 kWh/m3), and produces a good quality water extracted from the impaired feed water. Fouling of the FO membranes was not a major issue during long-term experiments over 14 days. After 10 days of continuous FO operation, the initial flux declined by 28%. Cleaning the FO membranes with air scouring and clean water recovered the initial flux by 98.8%. A cost analysis revealed FO per se as viable technology. However, a minimum average FO flux of 10.5 L/m2-h is needed to compete with water reuse using UF-LPRO, and 5.5 L/m2-h is needed to recover and desalinate water at less cost than SWRO. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Indirect desalination of Red Sea water with forward osmosis and low pressure reverse osmosis for water reuse

KAUST Repository

Yangali-Quintanilla, Victor

2011-10-01

The use of energy still remains the main component of the costs of desalting water. Forward osmosis (FO) can help to reduce the costs of desalination, and extracting water from impaired sources can be beneficial in this regard. Experiments with FO membranes using a secondary wastewater effluent as a feed water and Red Sea water as a draw solution demonstrated that the technology is promising. FO coupled with low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) was implemented for indirect desalination. The system consumes only 50% (~1.5 kWh/m3) of the energy used for high pressure seawater RO (SWRO) desalination (2.5-4 kWh/m3), and produces a good quality water extracted from the impaired feed water. Fouling of the FO membranes was not a major issue during long-term experiments over 14 days. After 10 days of continuous FO operation, the initial flux declined by 28%. Cleaning the FO membranes with air scouring and clean water recovered the initial flux by 98.8%. A cost analysis revealed FO per se as viable technology. However, a minimum average FO flux of 10.5 L/m2-h is needed to compete with water reuse using UF-LPRO, and 5.5 L/m2-h is needed to recover and desalinate water at less cost than SWRO. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Osmotically and thermally isolated forward osmosis-membrane distillation (fo-md) integrated module for water treatment applications

KAUST Repository

Ghaffour, Noreddine

2016-09-01

An integrated forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD) module and systems and methods incorporating the module is disclosed providing higher efficiencies and using less energy. The FO-MD module is osmotically and thermally isolated. The isolation can prevent mixing of FO draw solution/FO permeate and MD feed, and minimize dilution of FO draw solution and cooling of MD feed. The module provides MD feed solution and FO draw solution streams that flow in the same module but are separated by an isolation barrier. The osmotically and thermally isolated FO-MD integrated module, systems and methods offer higher driving forces of both FO and MD processes, higher recovery, and wider application than previously proposed hybrid FO- MD systems.

Osmotically and thermally isolated forward osmosis-membrane distillation (fo-md) integrated module for water treatment applications

KAUST Repository

Ghaffour, NorEddine; Francis, Lijo; Li, Zhenyu; Valladares, Rodrigo; Alsaadi, Ahmad S.; Ghdaib, Muhannad Abu; Amy, Gary L.

2016-01-01

An integrated forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD) module and systems and methods incorporating the module is disclosed providing higher efficiencies and using less energy. The FO-MD module is osmotically and thermally isolated. The isolation can prevent mixing of FO draw solution/FO permeate and MD feed, and minimize dilution of FO draw solution and cooling of MD feed. The module provides MD feed solution and FO draw solution streams that flow in the same module but are separated by an isolation barrier. The osmotically and thermally isolated FO-MD integrated module, systems and methods offer higher driving forces of both FO and MD processes, higher recovery, and wider application than previously proposed hybrid FO- MD systems.

A new approach for determination of fouling potential by colloidal nanoparticles during reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration of seawater

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Ji Yeon; Lim, Sungil; Park, Kihong

2013-01-01

A direct measurement of number concentration of colloidal nanoparticles (15–450 nm) in water was made with the membrane filtration-differential mobility analyzer technique, and its corresponding flux decline rate (FDR) was determined by laboratory-scale RO fouling test unit using varying number concentrations of silica nanoparticles in artificial seawaters. This relationship was used to predict fouling potential of colloidal nanoparticles in reverse osmosis (RO) membrane process of seawaters in RO plant. It was found that the FDR linearly increased with the increasing number of colloidal nanoparticles for the given concentration range and that the relationship between the number concentration and the FDR also depended on RO membrane surface properties. Data for estimated FDR values for natural seawaters after pretreatment showed a clear difference among samples, which is contrary to the pre-existing index such as silt density index and modified fouling index. Our data suggest that measurement of colloidal nanoparticles is useful for selection of proper pretreatment and successful operation of RO membrane process along with other particle fouling predictors accounting for large particles (>450 nm).

A new approach for determination of fouling potential by colloidal nanoparticles during reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration of seawater

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Ji Yeon; Lim, Sungil; Park, Kihong, E-mail: kpark@gist.ac.kr [Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), School of Environmental Science and Engineering (Korea, Republic of)

2013-04-15

A direct measurement of number concentration of colloidal nanoparticles (15-450 nm) in water was made with the membrane filtration-differential mobility analyzer technique, and its corresponding flux decline rate (FDR) was determined by laboratory-scale RO fouling test unit using varying number concentrations of silica nanoparticles in artificial seawaters. This relationship was used to predict fouling potential of colloidal nanoparticles in reverse osmosis (RO) membrane process of seawaters in RO plant. It was found that the FDR linearly increased with the increasing number of colloidal nanoparticles for the given concentration range and that the relationship between the number concentration and the FDR also depended on RO membrane surface properties. Data for estimated FDR values for natural seawaters after pretreatment showed a clear difference among samples, which is contrary to the pre-existing index such as silt density index and modified fouling index. Our data suggest that measurement of colloidal nanoparticles is useful for selection of proper pretreatment and successful operation of RO membrane process along with other particle fouling predictors accounting for large particles (>450 nm).

Transport properties of mixed metallic salts through reverse osmosis membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koyama, Akio; Nishimaki, Kenzo

1991-01-01

Applicability of reverse osmosis to the treatment of radioactive liquid waste was investigated. In previous papers, we showed the ability of reverse osmosis to decontaminate liquid waste which contains ionic radionuclides with chloride ion. When sulfate ion coexists with chloride, logarithms of DFs of one cation are approximately expressed by a linear function of logarithms of SO 4 2- /Cl - ratio. In this paper, we investigate the relation between DFs and concentrations of coexisting ions in multicomponent cation/anion system. As a result of this study, DFs of cations change more seriously with coexisting anions composition than with cations. In the case of anion, these influences are the reverse. Logarithms of DFs of cations and anions are expressed by linear equation with the two variables, logarithmic concentration ratio of univalent/divalent cations and logarithmic concentration ratio of SO 4 2- /Cl - . (author)

Treatment of radioactive liquid effluents by reverse osmosis membranes: From lab-scale to pilot-scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Combernoux, Nicolas; Schrive, Luc; Labed, Véronique; Wyart, Yvan; Carretier, Emilie; Moulin, Philippe

2017-10-15

The recent use of the reverse osmosis (RO) process at the damaged Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant generated a growing interest in the application of this process for decontamination purposes. This study focused on the development of a robust RO process for decontamination of two kinds of liquid effluents: a contaminated groundwater after a nuclear disaster and a contaminated seawater during a nuclear accident. The SW30 HR membrane was selected among other in this study due to higher retentions (96% for Cs and 98% for Sr) in a true groundwater. Significant fouling and scaling phenomenon, attributed to calcium and strontium precipitation, were evidenced in this work: this underscored the importance of the lab scale experiment in the process. Validation of the separation performances on trace radionuclides concentration was performed with similar retention around 96% between surrogates Cs (inactive) and 137 Cs (radioactive). The scale up to a 2.6 m 2 spiral wound membrane led to equivalent retentions (around 96% for Cs and 99% for Sr) but lower flux values: this underlined that the hydrodynamic parameters (flowrate/cross-flow velocity) should be optimized. This methodology was also applied on the reconstituted seawater effluent: retentions were slightly lower than for the groundwater and the same hydrodynamic effects were observed on the pilot scale. Then, ageing of the membrane through irradiation experiments were performed. Results showed that the membrane active layer composition influenced the membrane resistance towards γ irradiation: the SW30 HR membrane performances (retention and permeability) were better than the Osmonics SE at 1 MGy. Finally, to supplement the scale up approach, the irradiation of a spiral wound membrane revealed a limited effect on the permeability and retention. This indicated that irradiation conditions need to be controlled for a further development of the process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Treatment calculation program for reverse osmosis facilities; Programa de calculo de tratamiento para instalaciones de osmosis inversa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adroer, M.; Bodas, J.; Coma, J.

2001-07-01

Reverse osmosis if a technique used ever more frequently for the desalination of water. it is very important to maintain the permeability of the membrane as much as possible throughout its life, and in order to do this, is necessary to know the incrustations properties of the water in contact with the membrane. The Adicro program has been developed to calculate the characteristics of this water from the analysis of the intake water, the type of membrane used, and the recovery percentage. It also calculates the necessary inhibitor doses and, finally, whether the supply water is apt for use in the plant under the predicted conditions or whether it should be modified. (Author) 2 refs.

The treatment of river water by reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ray, N.J.; Jenkins, M.A.; Coates, A.

1977-01-01

The suitability of rod, spirally would and hollow fibre reverse osmosis systems has been assessed for the treatment of River Trent water to produce water of boiler feed quality. Particular attention has been paid to the effects of the suspended solids level of the influent water supply on operating and cleaning regimes. The best performance was given by the rod-type membranes which could be used with relatively dirty water if suitable chemical and/or physical cleaning techniques were applied. However, even this system, requires some form of clarification of the raw supply, and this affects capital and overall running costs. The hollow fibre membrane, which cannot be readily cleaned required an excessively clean water supply to avoid rapid and irreversible loss of output and is unlikely to have full-scale application on this, or similar, water. The spirally wound membranes, whilst not so susceptible to suspended solids as the hollow fibre system, did not tolerate dirty water, and required the raw water to be clarified to a level that is unlikely to be continuously guaranteed. In its current stage of development reverse osmosis is unlikely to give a cost advantage over the main cation/anion exchange stage of present water treatment plant, even for the treatment of waters relatively high in dissolved salts (500 mg kg -1 ). Moreover, conventional pretreatment and final mixed ion-exchange beds would still be required to produce water of boiler feed quality. Reverse osmosis does, however, remove organic species and non reactive silicon; its selection is likely to be dictated by such requirements or where space is at a premium e.g. extensions to existing water treatment plants. (orig.) [de

Experimental Study of Dye Removal from Industrial Wastewater by Membrane Technologies of Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Fadhil Abid

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Currently, biological method has been utilized in the treatment of wastewater -containing synthetic dyes used by textile industries in Iraq. The present work was devoted to study the operating feasibility using reverse osmosis (RO and nanofiltration (NF membrane systems as an alternative treatment method of wastewater discharged from Iraqi textile mills. Acid red, reactive black and reactive blue dyes were selected, based on the usage rate in Iraq. Effects of dye concentration, pH of solution, feed temperature, dissolved salts and operating pressure on permeate flux and dye rejection were studied. Results at operating conditions of dye concentration?=?65 mg/L, feed temperature?=?39?C and pressure?=?8 bar showed the final dye removal with RO membrane as 97.2%, 99.58% and 99.9% for acid red, reactive black and reactive blue dyes, respectively. With NF membrane, the final dye removal were as 93.77%, 95.67%, and 97% for red, black and blue dyes, respectively. The presence of salt (particularly NaCl in the dye solution resulted in a higher color removal with a permeate flux decline. It was confirmed that pH of solution had a positive impact on dye removal while feed temperature showed a different image. A comparison was made between the results of dye removal in biological and membrane methods. The results showed that membrane method had higher removal potential with lower effective cost. The present study indicates that the use of NF membrane in dye removal from the effluent of Iraqi textile mills is promising.

Biofouling in reverse osmosis: phenomena, monitoring, controlling and remediation

Science.gov (United States)

Maddah, Hisham; Chogle, Aman

2017-10-01

This paper is a comprehensive review of biofouling in reverse osmosis modules where we have discussed the mechanism of biofouling. Water crisis is an issue of pandemic concern because of the steady rise in demand of drinking water. Overcoming biofouling is vital since we need to optimize expenses and quality of potable water production. Various kinds of microorganisms responsible for biofouling have been identified to develop better understanding of their attacking behavior enabling us to encounter the problem. Both primitive and advanced detection techniques have been studied for the monitoring of biofilm development on reverse osmosis membranes. Biofouling has a negative impact on membrane life as well as permeate flux and quality. Thus, a mathematical model has been presented for the calculation of normalized permeate flux for evaluating the extent of biofouling. It is concluded that biofouling can be controlled by the application of several physical and chemical remediation techniques.

Application of thin film composite membranes with forward osmosis technology for the separation of emulsified oil-water

KAUST Repository

Duong, Hoang Hanh Phuoc; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung

2014-01-01

Large amounts of oily wastewater have been produced from various industries. The main challenge of oily wastewater treatments is to separate the stable emulsified oil particles from water. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of forward osmosis (FO) processes to treat the stable oil-water emulsions. The FO technique has been demonstrated successfully for the treatment of a wide range of oil-water emulsions from a low to a very high concentration up to 200,000. ppm. The dependence of separation performance on oily feed concentration and flow rate has been investigated. Water can be separated from oily feeds containing 500. ppm or 200,000. ppm emulsified oil at a relatively high flux of 16.5±1.2. LMH or 11.8±1.6. LMH respectively by using a thin film composite membrane PAN-TFC and 1. M NaCl as the draw solution. Moreover, this membrane can achieve an oil rejection of 99.88% to produce water with a negligible oil level. Due to the presence of emulsified oil particles in the oily feed solutions, the membrane fouling has been addressed in this study. Better anti-fouling TFC FO membranes are needed. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Application of thin film composite membranes with forward osmosis technology for the separation of emulsified oil-water

KAUST Repository

Duong, Hoang Hanh Phuoc

2014-02-01

Large amounts of oily wastewater have been produced from various industries. The main challenge of oily wastewater treatments is to separate the stable emulsified oil particles from water. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of forward osmosis (FO) processes to treat the stable oil-water emulsions. The FO technique has been demonstrated successfully for the treatment of a wide range of oil-water emulsions from a low to a very high concentration up to 200,000. ppm. The dependence of separation performance on oily feed concentration and flow rate has been investigated. Water can be separated from oily feeds containing 500. ppm or 200,000. ppm emulsified oil at a relatively high flux of 16.5±1.2. LMH or 11.8±1.6. LMH respectively by using a thin film composite membrane PAN-TFC and 1. M NaCl as the draw solution. Moreover, this membrane can achieve an oil rejection of 99.88% to produce water with a negligible oil level. Due to the presence of emulsified oil particles in the oily feed solutions, the membrane fouling has been addressed in this study. Better anti-fouling TFC FO membranes are needed. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The feasibility of nanofiltration membrane bioreactor (NF-MBR)+reverse osmosis (RO) process for water reclamation: Comparison with ultrafiltration membrane bioreactor (UF-MBR)+RO process.

Science.gov (United States)

Tay, Ming Feng; Liu, Chang; Cornelissen, Emile R; Wu, Bing; Chong, Tzyy Haur

2018-02-01

This study examines the feasibility of a novel nanofiltration membrane bioreactor (NF-MBR) followed by reverse osmosis (RO) process for water reclamation at 90% recovery and using an ultrafiltration MBR (UF-MBR)+RO as baseline for comparison. Both MBRs adopted the same external hollow fiber membrane configurations and operating conditions. The collected permeates of the MBRs were subsequently fed to the respective RO systems. The results showed that the NF-MBR (operated at a constant flux of 10 L/m 2 h) achieved superior MBR permeate quality due to enhanced biodegradation and high rejection capacity of the NF membrane, leading to lower RO fouling rates (∼3.3 times) as compared to the UF-MBR. Further analysis indicated that the cake layer fouling that caused the cake-enhanced osmotic pressure (CEOP) effect contributed predominantly to the transmembrane pressure (TMP) increase in the NF-MBR, while irreversible pore fouling was the major reason for UF membrane fouling. Furthermore, it was found that the biopolymers (i.e., organics with MW > 10 kDa) were the main components present in the foulants of the NF/UF membranes and RO membranes. The analysis indicated that the NF-MBR + RO system at recovery of 90% has comparable energy consumption as the UF-MBR + RO system at recovery of 75%. Our findings proved the feasibility of the NF-MBR + RO for water reclamation at a high recovery rate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process

Science.gov (United States)

Low, Ze-Xian; Liu, Qi; Shamsaei, Ezzatollah; Zhang, Xiwang; Wang, Huanting

2015-01-01

Internal concentration polarization (ICP) in forward osmosis (FO) process is a characteristic problem for asymmetric thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane which leads to lower water flux. To mitigate the ICP effect, modification of the substrates’ properties has been one of the most effective methods. A new polyethersulfone-based ultrafiltration membrane with increased surface porosity and high water flux was recently produced by incorporating Zn2GeO4 nanowires. The composite membrane was used as a substrate for the fabrication of TFC FO membrane, by coating a thin layer of polyamide on top of the substrate. The substrate and the nanowires were characterized by a range of techniques such as SEM, XRD, and contact angle goniometry. The water permeability and molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) of the substrate; and the FO performance of the TFC membrane were also determined. The Zn2GeO4-modified membrane showed ~45% increase in water permeability and NaCl salt rejection of 80% under RO mode. In FO mode, the ratio of water flux to reverse solute flux was also improved. However, lower FO flux was obtained which could be due to ICP. The result shows that Zn2GO4 nanowire may be used as a modifier to the substrate to improve the quality of the polyamide layer on the substrate to improve the flux and selectivity, but not as effective in reducing ICP. This work demonstrates that the incorporation of nanomaterials to the membrane substrate may be an alternative approach to improve the formation of polyamide skin layer to achieve better FO performance. PMID:25803239

Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ze-Xian Low

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Internal concentration polarization (ICP in forward osmosis (FO process is a characteristic problem for asymmetric thin-film composite (TFC FO membrane which leads to lower water flux. To mitigate the ICP effect, modification of the substrates’ properties has been one of the most effective methods. A new polyethersulfone-based ultrafiltration membrane with increased surface porosity and high water flux was recently produced by incorporating Zn2GeO4 nanowires. The composite membrane was used as a substrate for the fabrication of TFC FO membrane, by coating a thin layer of polyamide on top of the substrate. The substrate and the nanowires were characterized by a range of techniques such as SEM, XRD, and contact angle goniometry. The water permeability and molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO of the substrate; and the FO performance of the TFC membrane were also determined. The Zn2GeO4-modified membrane showed ~45% increase in water permeability and NaCl salt rejection of 80% under RO mode. In FO mode, the ratio of water flux to reverse solute flux was also improved. However, lower FO flux was obtained which could be due to ICP. The result shows that Zn2GO4 nanowire may be used as a modifier to the substrate to improve the quality of the polyamide layer on the substrate to improve the flux and selectivity, but not as effective in reducing ICP. This work demonstrates that the incorporation of nanomaterials to the membrane substrate may be an alternative approach to improve the formation of polyamide skin layer to achieve better FO performance.

Impact of spacer thickness on biofouling in forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo

2014-06-01

Forward osmosis (FO) indirect desalination systems integrate wastewater recovery with seawater desalination. Niche applications for FO systems have been reported recently, due to the demonstrated advantages compared to conventional high-pressure membrane processes such as nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). Among them, wastewater recovery has been identified to be particularly suitable for practical applications. However, biofouling in FO membranes has rarely been studied in applications involving wastewater effluents. Feed spacers separating the membrane sheets in cross-flow systems play an important role in biofilm formation. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of feed spacer thickness (28, 31 and 46mil) on biofouling development and membrane performance in a FO system, using identical cross-flow cells in parallel studies. Flux development, biomass accumulation, fouling localization and composition were determined and analyzed. For all spacer thicknesses, operated at the same feed flow and the same run time, the same amount of biomass was found, while the flux reduction decreased with thicker spacers. These observations are in good agreement with biofouling studies for RO systems, considering the key differences between FO and RO. Our findings contradict previous cross-flow studies on particulate/colloidal fouling, where higher cross-flow velocities improved system performance. Thicker spacers reduced the impact of biofouling on FO membrane flux. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Impact of spacer thickness on biofouling in forward osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Valladares Linares, R; Bucs, Sz S; Li, Z; AbuGhdeeb, M; Amy, G; Vrouwenvelder, J S

2014-06-15

Forward osmosis (FO) indirect desalination systems integrate wastewater recovery with seawater desalination. Niche applications for FO systems have been reported recently, due to the demonstrated advantages compared to conventional high-pressure membrane processes such as nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). Among them, wastewater recovery has been identified to be particularly suitable for practical applications. However, biofouling in FO membranes has rarely been studied in applications involving wastewater effluents. Feed spacers separating the membrane sheets in cross-flow systems play an important role in biofilm formation. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of feed spacer thickness (28, 31 and 46 mil) on biofouling development and membrane performance in a FO system, using identical cross-flow cells in parallel studies. Flux development, biomass accumulation, fouling localization and composition were determined and analyzed. For all spacer thicknesses, operated at the same feed flow and the same run time, the same amount of biomass was found, while the flux reduction decreased with thicker spacers. These observations are in good agreement with biofouling studies for RO systems, considering the key differences between FO and RO. Our findings contradict previous cross-flow studies on particulate/colloidal fouling, where higher cross-flow velocities improved system performance. Thicker spacers reduced the impact of biofouling on FO membrane flux. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of spacer thickness on biofouling in forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Bucs, Szilard; Li, Z.; AbuGhdeeb, M.; Amy, Gary L.; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.

2014-01-01

Forward osmosis (FO) indirect desalination systems integrate wastewater recovery with seawater desalination. Niche applications for FO systems have been reported recently, due to the demonstrated advantages compared to conventional high-pressure membrane processes such as nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). Among them, wastewater recovery has been identified to be particularly suitable for practical applications. However, biofouling in FO membranes has rarely been studied in applications involving wastewater effluents. Feed spacers separating the membrane sheets in cross-flow systems play an important role in biofilm formation. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of feed spacer thickness (28, 31 and 46mil) on biofouling development and membrane performance in a FO system, using identical cross-flow cells in parallel studies. Flux development, biomass accumulation, fouling localization and composition were determined and analyzed. For all spacer thicknesses, operated at the same feed flow and the same run time, the same amount of biomass was found, while the flux reduction decreased with thicker spacers. These observations are in good agreement with biofouling studies for RO systems, considering the key differences between FO and RO. Our findings contradict previous cross-flow studies on particulate/colloidal fouling, where higher cross-flow velocities improved system performance. Thicker spacers reduced the impact of biofouling on FO membrane flux. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

An Effective Design of Electrically Conducting Thin-Film Composite (TFC) Membranes for Bio and Organic Fouling Control in Forward Osmosis (FO).

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Qing; Qiu, Guanglei; Zhou, Zhengzhong; Li, Jingguo; Amy, Gary Lee; Xie, Jianping; Lee, Jim Yang

2016-10-04

The organic foulants and bacteria in secondary wastewater treatment can seriously impair the membrane performance in a water treatment plant. The embedded electrode approach using an externally applied potential to repel organic foulants and inhibit bacterial adhesion can effectively reduce the frequency of membrane replacement. Electrode embedment in membranes is often carried out by dispensing a conductor (e.g., carbon nanotubes, or CNTs) in the membrane substrate, which gives rise to two problems: the leaching-out of the conductor and a percolation-limited membrane conductivity that results in an added energy cost. This study presents a facile method for the embedment of a continuous electrode in thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes. Specifically, a conducting porous carbon paper is used as the understructure for the formation of a membrane substrate by the classical phase inversion process. The carbon paper and the membrane substrate polymer form an interpenetrating structure with good stability and low electrical resistance (only about 1Ω/□). The membrane-electrode assembly was deployed as the cathode of an electrochemical cell, and showed good resistance to organic and microbial fouling with the imposition of a 2.0 V DC voltage. The carbon paper-based FO TFC membranes also possess good mechanical stability for practical use.

Recovery of iron after Fenton-like secondary treatment of olive mill wastewater by nano-filtration and low-pressure reverse osmosis membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ochando-Pulido, J.M.; Victor-Ortega, M.D.; Martinez-Ferez, A.

2016-01-01

In this work, the performances of novel nano-filtration (NF) and low-pressure reverse osmosis (RO) polymeric membranes were examined with the aim of recovering the iron used as catalyst in former secondary treatment based on the Fenton-like advanced oxidation of olive mill wastewater (OMW). Results highlight that both membranes exhibit a good performance towards the rejection of iron (99.1% for the NF membrane vs. 100% for the low-pressure RO membrane) in the secondary-treated OMW effluent, thus permitting the recovery of iron in the concentrate stream in order to recycle it back into the oxidation reactor to reduce catalyst consumption. Finally, the permeate streams could be re-used for irrigation. Major productivity was observed by the selected NF membrane, about 47.4 L/hm2 upon 9 bar, whereas 30.9 L/hm2 could be yielded with the RO membrane under an operating pressure of 8 bar. Moreover, a sensibly lower fouling index was measured on the NF membrane (0.0072 in contrast with 0.065), which ensures major steady-state performance on this membrane and a longer service lifetime. This also results in lower required membrane area and membrane plant over dimension (4 modules in case of RO operation whereas only 2 modules for NF). [es

Study of the Effect of Nanoparticles and Surface Morphology on Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membrane Productivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven J. Duranceau

2013-08-01

Full Text Available To evaluate the significance of reverse osmosis (RO and nanofiltration (NF surface morphology on membrane performance, productivity experiments were conducted using flat-sheet membranes and three different nanoparticles, which included SiO2, TiO2 and CeO2. In this study, the productivity rate was markedly influenced by membrane surface morphology. Atomic force microscopy (AFM analysis of membrane surfaces revealed that the higher productivity decline rates associated with polyamide RO membranes as compared to that of a cellulose acetate NF membrane was due to the inherent ridge-and-valley morphology of the active layer. The unique polyamide active layer morphology was directly related to the surface roughness, and was found to contribute to particle accumulation in the valleys causing a higher flux decline than in smoother membranes. Extended RO productivity experiments using laboratory grade water and diluted pretreated seawater were conducted to compare the effect that different nanoparticles had on membrane active layers. Membrane flux decline was not affected by particle type when the feed water was laboratory grade water. On the other hand, membrane productivity was affected by particle type when pretreated diluted seawater served as feed water. It was found that CeO2 addition resulted in the least observable flux decline, followed by SiO2 and TiO2. A productivity simulation was conducted by fitting the monitored flux data into a cake growth rate model, where the model was modified using a finite difference method to incorporate surface thickness variation into the analysis. The ratio of cake growth term (k1 and particle back diffusion term (k2 was compared in between different RO and NF membranes. Results indicated that k2 was less significant for surfaces that exhibited a higher roughness. It was concluded that the valley areas of thin-film membrane surfaces have the ability to capture particles, limiting particle back diffusion.

In situ chemical osmosis experiment in the Boom Clay at the Mol underground research laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Garavito, A. M.; De Cannière, P.; Kooi, H.

Studies on the compatibility of Boom Clay with large amounts of nitrate- bearing bituminized radioactive waste have recently raised a particular interest for osmosis-induced effects in this reference formation in Belgium. Indeed, water flow and solute transport may be associated with several types of driving forces, or gradients (chemical, electrical, thermal), in addition to the hydraulic forces, resulting in the so-called coupled flows. Fluid flow caused by driving forces different than hydraulic gradients is referred to as osmosis. Chemical osmosis, the water flow induced by a chemical gradient across a semi-permeable membrane, can generate pressure increase. The question thus arises if there is a risk to create high pore pressures that could damage the near-field of medium-level waste (MLW) galleries, if osmotically driven water flows towards the galleries are produced by the release of large amounts of NaNO 3 (750 t) in the formation. To what extent a low-permeability clay formation such as the Boom Clay acts as an osmotic membrane is thus a key issue to assess the relevance of osmosis phenomena for the disposal of medium-level waste. An in situ osmosis experiment has been conducted at the H ADES underground research laboratory to determine the osmotic efficiency of Boom Clay at the field scale. A recently developed chemical osmosis flow continuum model has been used to design the osmosis experiment, and to interpret the water pressure measurements. Experimental data could be reproduced quite accurately by the model, and the inferred parameter values are consistent with independent determinations for Boom Clay. A rapid water pressure increase (but limited to about a 2 m water column) was observed after 12 h in the filter containing the more saline water. Then, the osmotically induced water pressure slowly decays on several months. So, the experimental results obtained in situ confirm the occurrence of non-hydraulic flow phenomena (chemical osmosis) in a low

Cleaning of liquid LLW from decontamination processes using semipermeable membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dulama, M.; Deneanu, N.; Pavelescu, M.

2003-01-01

material, compared to the cellulose acetate, in spite of the increased fouling of the polysulfonate membranes observed in the first test phase. Generally, an increasing of the retention is observed for most of the contaminants in the reverse osmosis experiments with pre-treatment steps. Increased efficiencies for cesium radionuclides removal were obtained in natural zeolite adsorption pre-treatment stages and this was due to the fact that volcanic tuff used contains about 60% clinoptilolite which has a special affinity for this element. Poor results were obtained in reverse osmosis tests with CAN-DECON solution compared with POD solution and this might be due to the fact that CAN-DECON contains EDTA, which is a very good complexing agent. Usually, the addition of powdered active charcoal serves as an advanced purifying method used to remove organic compounds and residual radionuclides; thus by analyzing the experimental data (for POD wastes) one can observe a decreasing of about 50% for cobalt isotopes and 30 % for cesium isotopes subsequently to the active charcoal adsorption. In spite the fact that they are time consuming, the co-precipitation method and methods, based on addition of adsorbents (active charcoal or natural zeolite) have numerous advantages, namely, yield quite clear solutions which can be used to the reverse osmosis modules. Hence, increasing the permeate flow ensures an increased lifetime for the reverse osmosis membrane by reducing the fouling rate

Biofouling of reverse-osmosis membranes under different shear rates during tertiary wastewater desalination: microbial community composition.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Ashhab, Ashraf; Gillor, Osnat; Herzberg, Moshe

2014-12-15

We investigated the influence of feed-water shear rate during reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination on biofouling with respect to microbial community composition developed on the membrane surface. The RO membrane biofilm's microbial community profile was elucidated during desalination of tertiary wastewater effluent in a flat-sheet lab-scale system operated under high (555.6 s(-1)), medium (370.4 s(-1)), or low (185.2 s(-1)) shear rates, corresponding to average velocities of 27.8, 18.5, and 9.3 cm s(-1), respectively. Bacterial diversity was highest when medium shear was applied (Shannon-Weaver diversity index H' = 4.30 ± 0.04) compared to RO-membrane biofilm developed under lower and higher shear rates (H' = 3.80 ± 0.26 and H' = 3.42 ± 0.38, respectively). At the medium shear rate, RO-membrane biofilms were dominated by Betaproteobacteria, whereas under lower and higher shear rates, the biofilms were dominated by Alpha- and Gamma- Proteobacteria, and the latter biofilms also contained Deltaproteobacteria. Bacterial abundance on the RO membrane was higher at low and medium shear rates compared to the high shear rate: 8.97 × 10(8) ± 1.03 × 10(3), 4.70 × 10(8) ± 1.70 × 10(3) and 5.72 × 10(6) ± 2.09 × 10(3) copy number per cm(2), respectively. Interestingly, at the high shear rate, the RO-membrane biofilm's bacterial community consisted mainly of populations known to excrete high amounts of extracellular polymeric substances. Our results suggest that the RO-membrane biofilm's community composition, structure and abundance differ in accordance with applied shear rate. These results shed new light on the biofouling phenomenon and are important for further development of antibiofouling strategies for RO membranes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flux behaviour under different operational conditions in osmosis process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korenak, Jasmina; Zarebska, Agata; Buksek, Hermina

the active membrane layer is facing draw solution. Osmosis process can be affected by several factors, such as operating conditions (temperature and cross flow velocity), feed and draw solution properties, and membrane characteristics. These factors can significantly contribute to the efficiency......, and total dissolved solids. Taken together our results can contribute understanding of the how performance of asymmetric FO membranes can be enhanced by feed and draw properties, membrane characteristics and operational conditions.......The transport of water molecules across a semi-permeable membrane is driven by the osmotic pressure difference between feed and draw solution. Two different operational modes can be distinguished, namely FO mode when the active membrane layer is facing the wastewater (feed), and PRO mode when...

Treatment of low-level radioactive waste liquid by reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buckley, L.P.; Sen Gupta, S.K.; Slade, J.A.

1995-01-01

The processing of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) liquids that result from operation of nuclear power plants with reverse osmosis systems is not common practice. A demonstration facility is operating at Chalk River Laboratories (of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited), processing much of the LLRW liquids generated at the site from a multitude of radioactive facilities, ranging from isotope production through decontamination operations and including chemical laboratory drains. The reverse osmosis system comprises two treatment steps--spiral wound reverse osmosis followed by tubular reverse osmosis--to achieve an average volume reduction factor of 30:1 and a removal efficiency in excess of 99% for most radioactive and chemical species. The separation allows the clean effluent to be discharged without further treatment. The concentrated waste stream of 3 wt% total solids is further processed to generate a solid product. The typical lifetimes of the membranes have been nearly 4000 hours, and replacement was required based on increased pressure drops and irreversible loss of permeate flux. Four years of operating experience with the reverse osmosis system, to demonstrate its practicality and to observe and record its efficiency, maintenance requirements and effectiveness, have proven it to be viable for volume reduction and concentration of LLRW liquids generated from nuclear-power-plant operations

Flux dependency of particulate/colloidal fouling in seawater reverse osmosis systems

KAUST Repository

Salinas Rodríguez, S. G.

2012-01-01

Fouling is the main operational problem in seawater reverse osmosis systems (SWRO). Particulate fouling is traditionally measured through the silt density index (SDI) and through the modified fouling index (MFI). In recent years, ultrafiltration membranes were used successfully at constant flux-MFI-UF-to measure particulate/colloidal fouling potential and tested in sea water applications. Furthermore, constant flux operation allows predicting the rate of fouling in RO systems. The objectives of this study are: (1) to measure the flux effect in MFI-UF with different membranes (100, 30 and 10 kDa) for raw seawater and pre-treated water before reverse osmosis in three different locations; (2) to study the particulate and colloidal fouling potential of seawater in reverse osmosis systems; (3) to project the increase in pressure due to cake resistance in reverse osmosis systems. In this research, flat ultrafiltration membranes (100, 50, 30 and 10 kDa) are used in a con- stant flux filtration mode to test and compare real seawaters from various locations (North and Mediterranean Sea) and from various full scale facilities including different pre-treatments (i.e., ultrafiltration and coagulation + dual media filtration). The operated fluxes range from 350 down to values close to real RO operation, 15l(m2h)-1. After each filtration test, the MFI-UF is calculated to assess the particulate fouling potential. The obtained results showed that: (1) the particulate and colloidal fouling potential is directly proportional to the applied flux during filtration. This proportionality is related to the compression of the cake deposit occurring at high flux values; (2) the higher the flux, the higher the required pressure, the less porous the cake and therefore the higher the specific cake resistance; (3) particulate and colloidal fouling potential of seawater is site specific and is influenced by pre-treatment. © 2012 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of spiral wound reverse osmosis for four radioactive waste processing applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sen Gupta, S.K.

1997-01-01

A pilot-scale spiral wound reverse osmosis rig was used to treat four significantly different radioactive waste streams, three of which were generated at the Chalk River Laboratories at AECL. These streams included: 1. A chemical decontamination (CD/DC) waste stream which is routinely treated by the plant-scale membrane system at CRL; 2. Reactor waste which is a dilute radioactive waste stream (containing primarily tritium and organic acids), and it an effluent from the operating reactors at AECL; 3. An ion exchange regenerant waste stream which contains a mixture of stream (1) (CD/DC), blended with secondary waste from ion exchange regeneration; 4. Boric acid simulated waste which is a by-product waste of the PWR reactors. This was the only stream treated that was not generated as a waste liquid at AECL. For the first three streams specified above, reverse osmosis was used to remove chemical and radiochemical impurities from the water with efficiencies usually exceeding 99%. In these three cases the 'permeate' or clean water was the product of the process. In the case of stream 4, reverse osmosis was used in a recovery application for the purpose of recycling boric acid back to the reactor, with the concentrate being the 'product'. Reverse osmosis technology was successfully demonstrated for the treatment of all four streams. Prefiltration and oxidation (with photocatalytic continuous oxidation technology) were evaluated as pretreatment alternatives for streams 1, 2, and 3. The results indicated that the effective crossflow velocity through and membrane vessel was more important in determining the extent of membrane fouling than the specific pretreatment strategy employed. (author)

Fatty acid fouling of forward osmosis membrane: Effects of pH, calcium, membrane orientation, initial permeate flux and foulant composition.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Pin; Gao, Baoyu; Yue, Qinyan; Liu, Pan; Shon, Ho Kyong

2016-08-01

Octanoic acid (OA) was selected to represent fatty acids in effluent organic matter (EOM). The effects of feed solution (FS) properties, membrane orientation and initial permeate flux on OA fouling in forward osmosis (FO) were investigated. The undissociated OA formed a cake layer quickly and caused the water flux to decline significantly in the initial 0.5hr at unadjusted pH3.56; while the fully dissociated OA behaved as an anionic surfactant and promoted the water permeation at an elevated pH of 9.00. Moreover, except at the initial stage, the sudden decline of water flux (meaning the occurrence of severe membrane fouling) occurred in two conditions: 1. 0.5mmol/L Ca(2+), active layer facing draw solution (AL-DS) and 1.5mol/L NaCl (DS); 2. No Ca(2+), active layer-facing FS (AL-FS) and 4mol/L NaCl (DS). This demonstrated that cake layer compaction or pore blocking occurred only when enough foulants were absorbed into the membrane surface, and the water permeation was high enough to compact the deposit inside the porous substrate. Furthermore, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was selected as a co-foulant. The water flux of both co-foulants was between the fluxes obtained separately for the two foulants at pH3.56, and larger than the two values at pH9.00. This manifested that, at pH3.56, BSA alleviated the effect of the cake layer caused by OA, and OA enhanced BSA fouling simultaneously; while at pH9.00, the mutual effects of OA and BSA eased the membrane fouling. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Sustainable water recovery from oily wastewater via forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD).

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Sui; Wang, Peng; Fu, Xiuzhu; Chung, Tai-Shung

2014-04-01

This study proposed and investigated a hybrid forward osmosis - membrane distillation (FO-MD) system for sustainable water recovery from oily wastewater by employing lab-fabricated FO and MD hollow fiber membranes. Stable oil-in-water emulsions of different concentrations with small droplet sizes (oil droplets and partial permeation of acetic acid could be achieved. Finally, an integrated FO-MD system was developed to treat the oily wastewater containing petroleum, surfactant, NaCl and acetic acid at 60 °C in the batch mode. The water flux in FO undergoes three-stage decline due to fouling and reduction in osmotic driving force, but is quite stable in MD regardless of salt concentration. Oily wastewater with relatively high salinity could be effectively recovered by the FO-MD hybrid system while maintaining large water flux, at least 90% feed water recovery could be readily attained with only trace amounts of oil and salts, and the draw solution was re-generated for the next rounds of FO-MD run. Interestingly, significant amount of acetic acid was also retained in the permeate for further reuse as a chemical additive during the production of crude oil. The work has demonstrated that not only water but also organic additives in the wastewater could be effectively recovered by FO-MD systems for reuse or other utilizations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the impacts of membrane type, coating, fouling, chemical properties and water chemistry on reverse osmosis rejection of seven nitrosoalklyamines, including NDMA.

Science.gov (United States)

Steinle-Darling, Eva; Zedda, Marco; Plumlee, Megan H; Ridgway, Harry F; Reinhard, Martin

2007-09-01

Reverse osmosis (RO) treatment has been found to be effective for a wide range of organics but generally small, polar, uncharged molecules such as N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) can be poorly rejected. The rejection of seven N-nitrosoalkylamines with molecular masses in the range of 78-158Da, including NDMA, N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA), N-nitrosodipropylamine (NDPA), N-nitrosodibutylamine (NDBA), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPyr), N-nitrosopiperidine (NPip) by three commercial brackish-water reverse osmosis membranes was studied in flat-sheet cells under cross-flow conditions. The membranes used were ESPA3 (Hydranautics), LFC3 (Hydranautics) and BW-30 (Dow/Filmtec), commonly used in water reuse applications. The effects of varying ionic strength and pH, dip-coating membranes with PEBAX 1657, a hydrophilic polymer, and artificial fouling with alginate on nitrosamine rejection were quantified. Rejection in deionized (DI) water increased with molecular mass from 56 to 70% for NDMA, to 80-91% for NMEA, 89-97% for NPyr, 92-98% for NDEA, and to beyond the detection limits for NPip, NDPA and NDBA. For the nitrosamines with quantifiable transmission, linear correlations (r(2)>0.97) were found between the number of methyl groups and the log(transmission), with factor 0.35 to 0.55 decreases in transmission per added methyl group. A PEBAX coating lowered the ESPA3 rejection of NDMA by 11% but increased the LFC3 and BW30 rejection by 6% and 15%, respectively. Artificially fouling ESPA3 membrane coupons with 170g/m(2) alginate decreased the rejection of NDMA by 18%. A feed concentration of 100mM NaCl decreased rejection of NDMA by 15% and acidifying the DI water feed to pH=3 decreased the rejection by 5%, whereas increasing the pH to 10 did not have a significant (p<0.05) effect.

Case Study of a Small Scale Reverse Osmosis System for Treatment of Mixed Brackish Water and STP Effluent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I Nyoman Widiasa

2017-04-01

Full Text Available A case study on utilizing reverse osmosis (RO technology to fulfill fresh water needs at a mall and a hotel has been done on Bali Island, Indonesia. A mix of brackish water and sewage treatment plant (STP effluent was used as feed water in the RO system. The system used 36 membrane elements (CSM RE 8040 BLN arranged into two stages: 8 pressure vessels (PVs in the first stage and 4 PVs in the second stage, each loaded with 3 membranes. The objectives of this research were to assess the cleaning effectivity in the plant, to evaluate the cleaning of 1 membrane element using a CIP system, and to assess the use of the membrane for filtration in the pre-treatment system. SEM and FTIR analysis indicated that the foulants on the membrane surface were dominated by organic foulants and inorganic deposits. To clean the discarded membrane the proposed method used NaOH solution (pH 12 and pH 13 and citric acid (pH 2 and pH 3. All membranes displayed a dramatic decline in rejection of about 80%. Based on the rejection tests of SO42-, Cl-, turbidity reduction approached 100%. It can be concluded that an RO membrane that has undergone selectivity decline can be re-used as a filtration membrane in the pre-treatment system.

In-line quantification and characterization of membrane fouling

KAUST Repository

Bucs, Szilard

2016-06-16

Methods of detecting, quantifying and/or characterizing the fouling of a device from a combination of pressure and spectroscopic data are provided. The device can be any device containing components susceptible to fouling. Components can include membranes, pipes, or reactors. Suitable devices include membrane devices, heat exchangers, and chemical or bio-reactors. Membrane devices can include, for example, microfiltration devices, ultrafiltration devices, nanofiltration devices, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, osmosis, reverse electrodialysis, electro- deionisation or membrane distillation devices. The methods can be applied to any type of membrane, including tubular, spiral, hollow fiber, flat sheet, and capillary membranes. The spectroscopic characterization can include measuring one or more of the absorption, fluorescence, or raman spectroscopic data of one or more foulants. The methods can allow for the early detection and/or characterization of fouling. The characterization can include determining the specific foulant(s) or type of foulant(s) present. The characterization of fouling can allow for the selection of an appropriate de-fouling method and timing.

Flux Enhancement in Membrane Distillation Using Nanofiber Membranes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Jiříček

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Membrane distillation (MD is an emerging separation technology, whose largest application potential lies in the desalination of highly concentrated solutions, which are out of the scope of reverse osmosis. Despite many attractive features, this technology is still awaiting large industrial application. The main reason is the lack of commercially available membranes with fluxes comparable to reverse osmosis. MD is a thermal separation process driven by a partial vapour pressure difference. Flux, distillate purity, and thermal efficiency are always in conflict, all three being strictly connected with pore size, membrane hydrophobicity, and thickness. The world has not seen the ideal membrane yet, but nanofibers may offer a solution to these contradictory requirements. Membranes of electrospun PVDF were tested under various conditions on a direct contact (DCMD unit, in order to determine the optimum conditions for maximum flux. In addition, their performance was compared to commonly available PTFE, PE, and PES membranes. It was confirmed that thinner membranes have higher fluxes and a lower distillate purity and also higher energy losses via conduction across the membrane. As both mass and heat transfer are connected, it is best to develop new membranes with a target application in mind, for the specific membrane module and operational conditions.

Permeability recovery of fouled forward osmosis membranes by chemical cleaning during a long-term operation of anaerobic osmotic membrane bioreactors treating low-strength wastewater.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xinhua; Hu, Taozhan; Wang, Zhiwei; Li, Xiufen; Ren, Yueping

2017-10-15

Anaerobic osmotic membrane bioreactor (AnOMBR) has gained increasing interests in wastewater treatment owing to its simultaneous recovery of biogas and water. However, the forward osmosis (FO) membrane fouling was severe during a long-term operation of AnOMBRs. Here, we aim to recover the permeability of fouled FO membranes by chemical cleaning. Specifically speaking, an optimal chemical cleaning procedure was searched for fouled thin film composite polyamide FO (TFC-FO) membranes in a novel microfiltration (MF) assisted AnOMBR (AnMF-OMBR). The results indicated that citric acid, disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA-2Na), hydrochloric acid (HCl), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) had a low cleaning efficiency of less than 15%, while hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) could effectively remove foulants from the TFC-FO membrane surface (almost 100%) through oxidizing the functional group of the organic foulants and disintegrating the colloids and microbe flocs into fine particles. Nevertheless, the damage of H 2 O 2 to the TFC-FO membrane was observed when a high cleaning concentration and a long duration were applied. In this case, the optimal cleaning conditions including cleaning concentration and time for fouled TFC-FO membranes were selected through confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and the flux recovery rate. The results suggested that the optimal cleaning procedure for fouled TFC-FO membranes was use of 0.5% H 2 O 2 at 25 °C for 6 h, and after that, the cleaned TFC-FO membrane had the same performance as a virgin one including water flux and rejection for organic matters and phosphorus during the operation of AnMF-OMBR. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Calcium carbonate scaling in seawater desalination by ammonia-carbon dioxide forward osmosis: Mechanism and implications

KAUST Repository

Li, Zhenyu; Valladares Linares, Rodrigo; Bucs, Szilard; Aubry, Cyril; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.; Amy, Gary L.

2015-01-01

Forward osmosis (FO) is an osmotically driven membrane process, where the membrane separates a draw solution (DS) with high salinity from a feed solution (FS) with low salinity. There can be a counter direction flow of salt (i.e., salt leakage

Studies on radioactive liquid waste treatment by reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koyama, Akio; Shimoura, Kazukuni; Tsutsui, Tenson

1982-01-01

Reverse osmosis is a simple process and has relatively high decontamination factor comparing to other processes used for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste. Furthermore the quantity of secondary waste of this process is small. In this study, test solution containing nine elements such as cesium, strontium, cobalt etc. in chloride forms are treated by reverse osmosis. Permeate rate decreases as the increase of osmotic pressure of feed solution and is expressed by linear equation. Decontamination factor of cations of univalency is more than ten, and about one tenth of that of bivalency. Decontamination factors of all the elements used in this experiment are approximately estimated using the solution-diffusion model. (author)

Well-constructed cellulose acetate membranes for forward osmosis: Minimized internal concentration polarization with an ultra-thin selective layer

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Sui

2010-09-01

The design and engineering of membrane structure that produces low salt leakage and minimized internal concentration polarization (ICP) in forward osmosis (FO) processes have been explored in this work. The fundamentals of phase inversion of cellulose acetate (CA) regarding the formation of an ultra-thin selective layer at the bottom interface of polymer and casting substrate were investigated by using substrates with different hydrophilicity. An in-depth understanding of membrane structure and pore size distribution has been elucidated with field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FESEM) and positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS). A double dense-layer structure is formed when glass plate is used as the casting substrate and water as the coagulant. The thickness of the ultra-thin bottom layer resulted from hydrophilic-hydrophilic interaction is identified to be around 95nm, while a fully porous, open-cell structure is formed in the middle support layer due to spinodal decomposition. Consequently, the membrane shows low salt leakage with mitigated ICP in the FO process for seawater desalination. The structural parameter (St) of the membrane is analyzed by modeling water flux using the theory that considers both external concentration polarization (ECP) and ICP, and the St value of the double dense-layer membrane is much smaller than those reported in literatures. Furthermore, the effects of an intermediate immersion into a solvent/water mixed bath prior to complete immersion in water on membrane formation have been studied. The resultant membranes may have a single dense layer with an even lower St value. A comparison of fouling behavior in a simple FO-membrane bioreactor (MBR) system is evaluated for these two types of membranes. The double dense-layer membrane shows a less fouling propensity. This study may help pave the way to improve the membrane design for new-generation FO membranes. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Treatment of dairy effluent model solutions by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Kyrychuk

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Dairy industry generates a large amount of wastewaters that have high concentrations and contain milk components. Membrane processes have been shown to be convenient for wastewater treatment recovering milk components present in wastewaters and producing treated water. Materials and methods. The experiments were carried out in an unstirred batch sell using nanofiltration membranes OPMN-P (ZAO STC “Vladipor”, Russian Federation and reverse osmosis membranes NanoRo, ZAO (“RM Nanotech”, Russian Federation. The model solutions of dairy effluents –diluted skim and whole milk were used. Results. The nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes showed the same permeate flux during the concentration of model solutions of dairy effluents. The reason of this was likely membrane fouling with feed components. The fouling indexes indicated the fouling factor that was higher for RO. The higher permeate quality was obtainedwith RO membranes. The NF permeate containing up to 0.4 g/L of lactose and 0.75 g/L of mineral salts can be discharged or after finishing trеatment (e.g. RO or other can be reused. The obtained NF and RO retentate corresponds to milk in composition and can be used for non-food applications or as feed supplement for animals. Conclusions.The studied RO and NF membranes can be used for concentration of dairy effluents at low pressure. They showed better performance and separation characteristics comparing with data of other membranes available in the literature.

Wastewater treatment, energy recovery and desalination using a forward osmosis membrane in an air-cathode microbial osmotic fuel cell

KAUST Repository

Werner, Craig M.

2013-02-01

A microbial osmotic fuel cell (MOFC) has a forward osmosis (FO) membrane situated between the electrodes that enable desalinated water recovery along with power generation. Previous designs have required aerating the cathode chamber water, offsetting the benefits of power generation by power consumption for aeration. An air-cathode MOFC design was developed here to improve energy recovery, and the performance of this new design was compared to conventional microbial fuel cells containing a cation (CEM) or anion exchange membrane (AEM). Internal resistance of the MOFC was reduced with the FO membrane compared to the ion exchange membranes, resulting in a higher maximum power production (43W/m3) than that obtained with an AEM (40W/m3) or CEM (23W/m3). Acetate (carbon source) removal reached 90% in the MOFC; however, a small amount of acetate crossed the membrane to the catholyte. The initial water flux declined by 28% from cycle 1 to cycle 3 of operation but stabilized at 4.1L/m2/h over the final three batch cycles. This decline in water flux was due to membrane fouling. Overall desalination of the draw (synthetic seawater) solution was 35%. These results substantially improve the prospects for simultaneous wastewater treatment and seawater desalination in the same reactor. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Gypsum (CaSO42H2O) scaling on polybenzimidazole and cellulose acetate hollow fiber membranes under forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Chen, Si Cong

2013-11-08

We have examined the gypsum (CaSO42H2O) scaling phenomena on membranes with different physicochemical properties in forward osmosis (FO) processes. Three hollow fiber membranes made of (1) cellulose acetate (CA), (2) polybenzimidazole (PBI)/polyethersulfone (PES) and (3) PBI-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were studied. For the first time in FO processes, we have found that surface ionic interactions dominate gypsum scaling on the membrane surface. A 70% flux reduction was observed on negatively charged CA and PBI membrane surfaces, due to strong attractive forces. The PBI membrane surface also showed a slightly positive charge at a low pH value of 3 and exhibited a 30% flux reduction. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) force measurements confirmed a strong repulsive force between gypsum and PBI at a pH value of 3. The newly developed PBI-POSS/PAN membrane had ridge morphology and a contact angle of 51.42 14.85 after the addition of hydrophilic POSS nanoparticles and 3 min thermal treatment at 95 C. Minimal scaling and an only 1.3% flux reduction were observed at a pH value of 3. Such a ridge structure may reduce scaling by not providing a locally flat surface to the crystallite at a pH value of 3; thus, gypsum would be easily washed away from the surface. 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Salinity-gradient power: Evaluation of pressure-retarded osmosis and reverse electrodialysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Post, J.W.; Veerman, J.; Hamelers, H.V.M.; Euverink, G.J.W.; Metz, S.J.; Nymeijer, K.; Buisman, C.J.N.

2007-01-01

A huge potential to obtain clean energy exists from mixing water streams with different salt concentrations. Two membrane-based energy conversion techniques are evaluated: pressure-retarded osmosis and reverse electrodialysis. From the literature, a comparison is not possible since the reported

Removal of toxic ions (chromate, arsenate, and perchlorate) using reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, and ultrafiltration membranes

KAUST Repository

Yoon, Jaekyung

2009-09-01

Rejection characteristics of chromate, arsenate, and perchlorate were examined for one reverse osmosis (RO, LFC-1), two nanofiltration (NF, ESNA, and MX07), and one ultrafiltration (UF and GM) membranes that are commercially available. A bench-scale cross-flow flat-sheet filtration system was employed to determine the toxic ion rejection and the membrane flux. Both model and natural waters were used to prepare chromate, arsenate, and perchlorate solutions (approximately 100 μg L-1 for each anion) in mixtures in the presence of other salts (KCl, K2SO4, and CaCl2); and at varying pH conditions (4, 6, 8, and 10) and solution conductivities (30, 60, and 115 mS m-1). The rejection of target ions by the membranes increases with increasing solution pH due to the increasingly negative membrane charge with synthetic model waters. Cr(VI), As(V), and ClO4 - rejection follows the order LFC-1 (>90%) > MX07 (25-95%) ≅ ESNA (30-90%) > GM (3-47%) at all pH conditions. In contrast, the rejection of target ions by the membranes decreases with increasing solution conductivity due to the decreasingly negative membrane charge. Cr(VI), As(V), and ClO4 - rejection follows the order CaCl2 < KCl ≅ K2SO4 at constant pH and conductivity conditions for the NF and UF membranes tested. For natural waters the LFC-1 RO membrane with a small pore size (0.34 nm) had a significantly greater rejection for those target anions (>90%) excluding NO3 - (71-74%) than the ESNA NF membrane (11-56%) with a relatively large pore size (0.44 nm), indicating that size exclusion is at least partially responsible for the rejection. The ratio of solute radius (ri,s) to effective membrane pore radius (rp) was employed to compare ion rejection. For all of the ions, the rejection is higher than 70% when the ri,s/rp ratio is greater than 0.4 for the LFC-1 membrane, while for di-valent ions (CrO4 2 -, SO4 2 -, and HAsSO4 2 -) the rejection (38-56%) is fairly proportional to the ri,s/rp ratio (0.32-0.62) for the ESNA

Characteristics of separation of carnitine and metal ions in cheese whey model solution by loose reverse osmosis membrane

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu, J.; Echizen, H.; Xing, X.; Yamamoto, S.; Unno, H. [Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo (Japan)

1996-04-20

Aiming at recovering carnitine from cheese whey by using loose reverse osmosis membranes, rejection characteristics of several components in the whey were examined by using model solutions. An electroneutral membrane was found to be most effective for the separation. The rejection of carnitine was above 0.95 independent of the pH of solutions, while monovalent metal ions showed low rejections of 0.1-0.3. On the other hand, the rejections of divalent metal ions deceased with increase of the pH, and reached a minimum of about 0.5. As a result, mono-and divalent metal ions could be removed simultaneously by adjusting the pH of the feed solutions. To clarify the effect of pH on the rejection the permeate of MgCl2 aqueous solution was examined. The rejections of MgCl2 were greatly affected by the pH and showed the same tendency as the mixed station. The effect of the pH on permeation of electrolyte was considered to be caused mainly by the adsorption of ions on the membrane. 16 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs.

Trace organic solutes in closed-loop forward osmosis applications: influence of membrane fouling and modeling of solute build-up.

Science.gov (United States)

D'Haese, Arnout; Le-Clech, Pierre; Van Nevel, Sam; Verbeken, Kim; Cornelissen, Emile R; Khan, Stuart J; Verliefde, Arne R D

2013-09-15

In this study, trace organics transport in closed-loop forward osmosis (FO) systems was assessed. The FO systems considered, consisted of an FO unit and a nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) unit, with the draw solution circulating between both units. The rejection of trace organics by FO, NF and RO was tested. It was found that the rejection rates of FO were generally comparable with NF and lower than RO rejection rates. To assess the influence of fouling in FO on trace organics rejection, FO membranes were fouled with sodium alginate, bovine serum albumin or by biofilm growth, after which trace organics rejection was tested. A negative influence of fouling on FO rejection was found which was limited in most cases, while it was significant for some compounds such as paracetamol and naproxen, indicating specific compound-foulant interactions. The transport mechanism of trace organics in FO was tested, in order to differentiate between diffusive and convective transport. The concentration of trace organics in the final product water and the build-up of trace organics in the draw solution were modeled assuming the draw solution was reconcentrated by NF/RO and taking into account different transport mechanisms for the FO membrane and different rejection rates by NF/RO. Modeling results showed that if the FO rejection rate is lower than the RO rejection rate (as is the case for most compounds tested), the added value of the FO-RO cycle compared to RO only at steady-state was small for diffusively and negative for convectively transported trace organics. Modeling also showed that trace organics accumulate in the draw solution. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the efficiency of different microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes used as pretreatment for Red Sea water reverse osmosis desalination

KAUST Repository

Almashharawi, Samir

2013-01-01

Conventional processes are widely used as pretreatment for reverse osmosis (RO) desalination technology since its development. However, these processes require a large footprint and have some limitation issues such as difficulty to maintain a consistent silt density index, coagulation control at low total suspended solids, and management of higher waste sludge. Recently, there has been a rapid growth in the use of low-pressure membranes as pretreatment for RO systems replacing the conventional processes. However, despite the numerous advantages of using this integrated membrane system mainly providing good and stable water quality to RO membranes, many issues have to be addressed. The primary limitation is membrane fouling which reduces the permeate flux; therefore, higher pumping intensity is required to maintain a consistent volume of product. This paper aims to optimize the permeation flux and cleaning frequency by providing high permeate quality. Different low-pressure polyethersulfone membranes with different pore sizes ranging from 0.1 lm to 50 kDa were tested. Eight different filtration configurations have been applied including the variation of coagulant doses aiming to control membrane fouling. Results showed that all the configurations with/without coagulation, provided permeate with excellent water quality which improves the stability of RO performance. However, more stable fluxes with less-energy consumption were achieved by using the 0.1 lm and 100 kDa membranes with 1 mg/L FeCl3 coagulation. The use of UF membranes, having tight pores, without coagulation also proved to be an excellent option for Red Sea water RO pretreatment. © 2013 Desalination Publications.

Anti-fouling and high water permeable forward osmosis membrane fabricated via layer by layer assembly of chitosan/graphene oxide

Science.gov (United States)

Salehi, Hasan; Rastgar, Masoud; Shakeri, Alireza

2017-08-01

To date, forward osmosis (FO) has received considerable attention due to its potential application in seawater desalination. FO does not require external hydraulic pressure and consequently is believed to have a low fouling propensity. Despite the numerous privileges of FO process, a major challenge ahead for its development is the lack of high performance membranes. In this study, we fabricated a novel highly-efficient FO membrane using layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of positive chitosan (CS) and negative graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets via electrostatic interaction on a porous support layer. The support layer was prepared by blending hydrophilic sulfonated polyethersulfone (SPES) into polyethersulfone (PES) matrix using wet phase inversion process. Various characterization techniques were used to confirm successful fabrication of LbL membrane. The number of layers formed on the SPES-PES support layer was easily adjusted by repeating the CS and GO deposition cycles. Thin film composite (TFC) membrane was also prepared by the same SPES-PES support layer and polyamide (PA) active layer to compare membranes performances. The water permeability and salt rejection of the fabricated membranes were obtained by two kinds of draw solutions (including Na2SO4 and sucrose) under two different membrane orientations. The results showed that membrane coated by a CS/GO bilayers had water flux of 2-4 orders of magnitude higher than the TFC one. By increasing the number of CS/GO bilayers, the selectivity of the LbL membrane was improved. The novel fabricated LbL membrane showed better fouling resistance than the TFC one in the feed solution containing 200 ppm of sodium alginate as a foulant model.

Sensory quality of drinking water produced by reverse osmosis membrane filtration followed by remineralisation.

Science.gov (United States)

Vingerhoeds, Monique H; Nijenhuis-de Vries, Mariska A; Ruepert, Nienke; van der Laan, Harmen; Bredie, Wender L P; Kremer, Stefanie

2016-05-01

Membrane filtration of ground, surface, or sea water by reverse osmosis results in permeate, which is almost free from minerals. Minerals may be added afterwards, not only to comply with (legal) standards and to enhance chemical stability, but also to improve the taste of drinking water made from permeate. Both the nature and the concentrations of added minerals affect the taste of the water and in turn its acceptance by consumers. The aim of this study was to examine differences in taste between various remineralised drinking waters. Samples selected varied in mineral composition, i.e. tap water, permeate, and permeate with added minerals (40 or 120 mg Ca/L, added as CaCO3, and 4 or 24 mg Mg/L added as MgCl2), as well as commercially available bottled drinking waters, to span a relevant product space in which the remineralised samples could be compared. All samples were analysed with respect to their physical-chemical properties. Sensory profiling was done by descriptive analysis using a trained panel. Significant attributes included taste intensity, the tastes bitter, sweet, salt, metal, fresh and dry mouthfeel, bitter and metal aftertaste, and rough afterfeel. Total dissolved solids (TDS) was a major determinant of the taste perception of water. In general, lowering mineral content in drinking water in the range examined (from water from fresh towards bitter, dry, and rough sensations. In addition, perceived freshness of the waters correlated positively with calcium concentration. The greatest fresh taste was found for water with a TDS between 190 and 350 mg/L. Remineralisation of water after reverse osmosis can improve drinking quality significantly. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of surface coating process conditions on the water permeation and salt rejection properties of composite polyamide reverse osmosis membranes

KAUST Repository

Louie, Jennifer Sarah

2011-02-01

The application of polymer surface coatings to improve the fouling resistance of reverse osmosis membranes tends to increase flow resistance across the membrane. This paper presents a systematic analysis on how membrane properties and performance are impacted by the coating process steps, and investigates how such effects could contribute to lower water flux. On one hand, simply pre-soaking dry aromatic polyamide composite membranes in aliphatic alcohols results in a significant increase in water flux, which is attributed to wetting of pores in the selective polyamide layer and to changes in the polymer structure. This flux increase was not readily reversible, based on a 300-h water permeation test. Conversely, drying a wetted membrane led to a decrease in water flux, which we hypothesize is caused by increased interchain hydrogen-bonding in the selective layer. This drop in water flux was not permanent; higher flux was observed if the same wetted/dried membrane was then re-soaked in ethanol prior to the water permeation experiment. An ethanol pre-soaking step also increased water flux of a PEBAX-coated membrane by nearly 70%. In contrast to the reduction in water flux caused by the specific treatment sequence of ethanol-swelling followed by drying, this same sequence actually increased gas transport. The eight- to ten-fold increase in Knudsen diffusion-based gas permeance after this pre-treatment was attributed to an increase in the number or size of membrane defects. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Quorum quenching bacteria can be used to inhibit the biofouling of reverse osmosis membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Hyun-Suk; Tan, Chuan Hao; Low, Jiun Hui; Rzechowicz, Miles; Siddiqui, Muhammad Faisal; Winters, Harvey; Kjelleberg, Staffan; Fane, Anthony G; Rice, Scott A

2017-04-01

Over the last few decades, significant efforts have concentrated on mitigating biofouling in reverse osmosis (RO) systems, with a focus on non-toxic and sustainable strategies. Here, we explored the potential of applying quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria to control biofouling in a laboratory-scale RO system. For these experiments, Pantoea stewartii was used as a model biofilm forming organism because it was previously shown to be a relevant wastewater isolate that also forms biofilms in a quorum sensing (QS) dependent fashion. A recombinant Escherichia coli strain, which can produce a QQ enzyme, was first tested in batch biofilm assays and significantly reduced biofilm formation by P. stewartii. Subsequently, RO membranes were fouled with P. stewartii and the QQ bacterium was introduced into the RO system using two different strategies, direct injection and immobilization within a cartridge microfilter. When the QQ bacterial cells were directly injected into the system, N-acylhomoserine lactone signals were degraded, resulting in the reduction of biofouling. Similarly, the QQ bacteria controlled biofouling when immobilized within a microfilter placed downstream of the RO module to remove QS signals circulating in the system. These results demonstrate the proof-of-principle that QQ can be applied to control biofouling of RO membranes and may be applicable for use in full-scale plants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forward and pressure retarded osmosis: potential solutions for global challenges in energy and water supply.

Science.gov (United States)

Klaysom, Chalida; Cath, Tazhi Y; Depuydt, Tom; Vankelecom, Ivo F J

2013-08-21

Osmotically driven membrane processes (ODMP) have gained renewed interest in recent years and they might become a potential solution for the world's most challenging problems of water and energy scarcity. Though the concept of utilizing osmotic pressure difference between high and low salinity streams across semipermeable membranes has been explored for several decades, lack of optimal membranes and draw solutions hindered competition between forward osmosis (FO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) with existing water purification and power generation technologies, respectively. Driven by growing global water scarcity and by energy cost and negative environmental impacts, novel membranes and draw solutions are being developed for ODMPs, mass and heat transfer in osmotic process are becoming better understood, and new applications of ODMPs are emerging. Therefore, OMDPs might become promising green technologies to provide clean water and clean energy from abundantly available renewable resources. This review focuses primarily on new insights into osmotic membrane transport mechanisms and on novel membranes and draw solutions that are currently being developed. Furthermore, the effects of operating conditions on the overall performance of osmotic membranes will be highlighted and future perspectives will be presented.

Effectiveness of Subsidies in Technology Adoption: A Case Study Involving Reverse Osmosis (RO Membrane Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nur Laili

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Adoption of new technologies is a process that involves technological learning and penetration of new products into the market. Within the process of new technologies adoption, government usually intervened by providing incentives, in order to support the technology adoption to be succeed. This paper examines the effectiveness of incentives for the sustainability of reverse osmosis (RO membrane technology adoption. The study conducted through single case study on SWRO installation in Mandangin Island, East Java, Indonesia. Results of case study indentify the existence of government incentive in the form of direct subsidies to decrease the price of clean water. Although successful in reducing the price of water, but effectiveness of the subsidy on the sustainability of SWRO is still low, which is operates only 30% in a year. Further analysis shows that these subsidies actually be counter-productive to the sustainability of SWRO installation.

Purifying fluoride-contaminated water by a novel forward osmosis design with enhanced flux under reduced concentration polarization.

Science.gov (United States)

Pal, Madhubonti; Chakrabortty, Sankha; Pal, Parimal; Linnanen, Lassi

2015-08-01

For purifying fluoride-contaminated water, a new forward osmosis scheme in horizontal flat-sheet cross flow module was designed and investigated. Effects of pressure, cross flow rate, draw solution and alignment of membrane module on separation and flux were studied. Concentration polarization and reverse salt diffusion got significantly reduced in the new hydrodynamic regime. This resulted in less membrane fouling, better solute separation and higher pure water flux than in a conventional module. The entire scheme was completed in two stages-an upstream forward osmosis for separating pure water from contaminated water and a downstream nanofiltration operation for continuous recovery and recycle of draw solute. Synchronization of these two stages of operation resulted in a continuous, steady-state process. From a set of commercial membranes, two polyamide composite membranes were screened out for the upstream and downstream filtrations. A 0.3-M NaCl solution was found to be the best one for forward osmosis draw solution. Potable water with less than 1% residual fluoride could be produced at a high flux of 60-62 L m(-2) h(-1) whereas more than 99% draw solute could be recovered and recycled in the downstream nanofiltration stage from where flux was 62-65 L m(-2) h(-1).

Epithelial Fluid Transport is Due to Electro-osmosis (80%), Plus Osmosis (20%).

Science.gov (United States)

Fischbarg, Jorge; Hernandez, Julio A; Rubashkin, Andrey A; Iserovich, Pavel; Cacace, Veronica I; Kusnier, Carlos F

2017-06-01

Epithelial fluid transport, an important physiological process shrouded in a long-standing enigma, may finally be moving closer to a solution. We propose that, for the corneal endothelium, relative proportions for the driving forces for fluid transport are 80% of paracellular electro-osmosis, and 20% classical transcellular osmosis. These operate in a cyclical process with a period of 9.2 s, which is dictated by the decrease and exhaustion of cellular Na + . Paracellular electro-osmosis is sketched here, and partially discussed as much as the subject still allows; transcellular osmosis is presented at length.

Pressure retarded osmosis dual-layer hollow fiber membranes developed by co-casting method and ammonium persulfate (APS) treatment

KAUST Repository

Fu, Fengjiang; Sun, Shipeng; Zhang, Sui; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung

2014-01-01

Delamination and low water permeability are two issues limiting the applications of dual-layer hollow fiber membranes in the pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process. In this work, we first developed a universal co-casting method that is able to co-cast highly viscous dope solutions to form homogeneous dual-layer flat sheet membranes. By employing this method prior to the tedious dual-layer hollow fiber spinning process, both time and material consumptions are significantly saved. The addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is found to eliminate delamination at the sacrifice of water flux. A new post-treatment method that involves flowing ammonium persulfate (APS) solution and DI water counter-currently is potentially to remove the PVP molecules entrapped in the substrate while keeps the integrity of the interface. As the APS concentration increases, the water flux in the PRO process is increased while the salt leakage is slightly decreased. With the optimized APS concentration of 5wt%, the post-treated membrane shows a maximum power density of 5.10W/m2 at a hydraulic pressure of 15.0bar when 1M NaCl and 10mM NaCl were used as the draw and feed solutions, respectively. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the best phase inversion dual-layer hollow fiber membrane with an outer selective layer for osmotic power generation. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Pressure retarded osmosis dual-layer hollow fiber membranes developed by co-casting method and ammonium persulfate (APS) treatment

KAUST Repository

Fu, Fengjiang

2014-11-01

Delamination and low water permeability are two issues limiting the applications of dual-layer hollow fiber membranes in the pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process. In this work, we first developed a universal co-casting method that is able to co-cast highly viscous dope solutions to form homogeneous dual-layer flat sheet membranes. By employing this method prior to the tedious dual-layer hollow fiber spinning process, both time and material consumptions are significantly saved. The addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is found to eliminate delamination at the sacrifice of water flux. A new post-treatment method that involves flowing ammonium persulfate (APS) solution and DI water counter-currently is potentially to remove the PVP molecules entrapped in the substrate while keeps the integrity of the interface. As the APS concentration increases, the water flux in the PRO process is increased while the salt leakage is slightly decreased. With the optimized APS concentration of 5wt%, the post-treated membrane shows a maximum power density of 5.10W/m2 at a hydraulic pressure of 15.0bar when 1M NaCl and 10mM NaCl were used as the draw and feed solutions, respectively. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the best phase inversion dual-layer hollow fiber membrane with an outer selective layer for osmotic power generation. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Advanced Control Synthesis for Reverse Osmosis Water Desalination Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Phuc, Bui Duc Hong; You, Sam-Sang; Choi, Hyeung-Six; Jeong, Seok-Kwon

2017-11-01

  In this study, robust control synthesis has been applied to a reverse osmosis desalination plant whose product water flow and salinity are chosen as two controlled variables. The reverse osmosis process has been selected to study since it typically uses less energy than thermal distillation. The aim of the robust design is to overcome the limitation of classical controllers in dealing with large parametric uncertainties, external disturbances, sensor noises, and unmodeled process dynamics. The analyzed desalination process is modeled as a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system with varying parameters. The control system is decoupled using a feed forward decoupling method to reduce the interactions between control channels. Both nominal and perturbed reverse osmosis systems have been analyzed using structured singular values for their stabilities and performances. Simulation results show that the system responses meet all the control requirements against various uncertainties. Finally the reduced order controller provides excellent robust performance, with achieving decoupling, disturbance attenuation, and noise rejection. It can help to reduce the membrane cleanings, increase the robustness against uncertainties, and lower the energy consumption for process monitoring.

MODIFIED REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM FOR TREATMENT OF PRODUCED WATERS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

T.M. Whitworth; Liangxiong Li

2002-09-15

This report describes work performed during the second year of the project ''Modified reverse osmosis system for treatment of produced waters.'' We performed two series of reverse osmosis experiments using very thin bentonite clay membranes compacted to differing degrees. The first series of 10 experiments used NaCl solutions with membranes that ranged between 0.041 and 0.064mm in thickness. Our results showed compaction of such ultra-thin clay membranes to be problematic. The thickness of the membranes was exceeded by the dimensional variation in the machined experimental cell and this is believed to have resulted in local bypassing of the membrane with a resultant decrease in solute rejection efficiency. In two of the experiments, permeate flow was varied as a percentage of the total flow to investigate results of changing permeate flow on solute rejection. In one experiment, the permeate flow was varied between 2.4 and 10.3% of the total flow with no change in solute rejection. In another experiment, the permeate flow was varied between 24.6 and 52.5% of the total flow. In this experiment, the solute rejection rate decreased as the permeate occupied greater fractions of the total flow. This suggests a maximum solute rejection efficiency for these clay membranes for a permeate flow of between 10.3 and 24.6% of the total; flow. Solute rejection was found to decrease with increasing salt concentration and ranged between 62.9% and 19.7% for chloride and between 61.5 and 16.8% for sodium. Due to problems with the compaction procedure and potential membrane bypassing, these rejection rates are probably not the upper limit for NaCl rejection by bentonite membranes. The second series of four reverse osmosis experiments was conducted with a 0.057mm-thick bentonite membrane and dilutions of a produced water sample with an original TDS of 196,250 mg/l obtained from a facility near Loco Hill, New Mexico, operated by an independent. These experiments

Reverse osmosis for the recovery of boric acid from the primary coolant at nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bártová, Šárka, E-mail: sarka.bartova@cvrez.cz [Research Centre Řež Ltd., Husinec-Řež 130, 250 68 Řež (Czech Republic); Kůs, Pavel [Research Centre Řež Ltd., Husinec-Řež 130, 250 68 Řež (Czech Republic); Skala, Martin [Research Centre Řež Ltd., Husinec-Řež 130, 250 68 Řež (Czech Republic); University of Chemical Technology, Prague, Department of Chemical Engineering, Technická 5, Prague 166 28 (Czech Republic); Vonková, Kateřina [Research Centre Řež Ltd., Husinec-Řež 130, 250 68 Řež (Czech Republic)

2016-04-15

Highlights: • RO membranes tested for boric acid recovery from primary coolant of nuclear power plants. • Scanning electron microscopy was used for the characterization of the membranes. • Lab scale experiments performed under various operation conditions. • We proposed configuration of and operation conditions for RO unit in nuclear power plant. - Abstract: At nuclear power plants (NPP), evaporators are used for the treatment of primary coolant and other liquid radioactive waste containing H{sub 3}BO{sub 3}. Because the operation of evaporators is expensive, a number of more cost-effective alternatives has been considered, one of which is reverse osmosis. We tested reverse osmosis modules from several manufactures on a batch laboratory apparatus. SEM images of the tested membranes were taken to distinguish the differences between the membranes. Water permeability through membranes was evaluated from the experiments with pure water. The experiments were performed with feed solutions containing various concentrations of H{sub 3}BO{sub 3} in a range commonly occurring in radioactive waste. The pH of the feed solutions ranged from 5.2 to 11.2. Our results confirmed that the pH of the feed solution plays the most important role in membrane separation efficiency of H{sub 3}BO{sub 3}. Certain modifications to the pH of the feed solution were needed to enable the tested membranes to concentrate the H{sub 3}BO{sub 3} in the retentate stream, separate from the pure water in the permeate stream. On this basis, we propose the configuration of and operational conditions for a reverse osmosis unit at NPP.

Potential of dyes as draw solutions in forward osmosis for the South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2University of Maribor, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, ... Forward osmosis (FO) technology has gained substantial interest as a possible lower-energy desalination ...... thesis, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty ... membranes: fouling reversibility and cleaning without chemical reagents.

Triple-membrane reduces need for ion exchange regeneration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valcour, H.

1989-01-01

Triple-membrane water treatment systems are comprised of ultrafiltration units for pretreatment, electrodialysis reversal primary demineralizers, reverse osmosis secondary demineralizers, portable ion exchange unit polishing demineralizers, and ultraviolet sterilizers. The triple-membrane process is designed to provide an unprecedented degree of pretreatment to maximize efficiency, durability and reliability of the reverse osmosis, whilst reducing the required regeneration frequency of the ion exchange demineralizer by one to two orders of magnitude. (author)

Removal of organic micro-pollutants (phenol, aniline and nitrobenzene) via forward osmosis (FO) process: Evaluation of FO as an alternative method to reverse osmosis (RO)

KAUST Repository

Cui, Yue

2016-01-05

In this study, we have explored and compared the effectiveness of using (1) lab-fabricated forward osmosis (FO) membranes under both FO and reverse osmosis (RO) modes and (2) commercially available RO membranes under the RO mode for the removal of organic micro-pollutants. The lab-fabricated FO membranes are thin film composite (TFC) membranes consisting of a polyamide layer and a porous substrate cast from three different materials; namely, Matrimid, polyethersulfone (PESU) and sulfonated polyphenylene sulfone (sPPSU). The results show that the FO mode is superior to the RO mode in the removal of phenol, aniline and nitrobenzene from wastewater. The rejections of all three TFC membranes to all the three organic micro-pollutants under the FO processes are higher than 72% and can be even higher than 90% for aniline when a 1000 ppm aromatic aqueous solution and 1 M NaCl are employed as feeds. These performances outperform the results obtained from themselves and commercially available RO membranes under the RO mode. In addition, the rejection can be maintained even when treating a more concentrated feed solution (2000 ppm). The removal performance can be further enhanced by using a more concentrated draw solution (2 M). The water flux is almost doubled, and the rejection increment can reach up to 17%. Moreover, it was observed that annealing as a post-treatment would help compact the membrane selective layer and further enhance the separating efficiency. The obtained organic micro-pollutant rejections and water fluxes under various feasible operating conditions indicate that the FO process has potential to be a viable treatment for wastewater containing organic micro-pollutants.

Fouling effects of tri-n-butylphosphate on reverse osmosis performance and techniques for performance recovery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poy, F.L.

1987-01-01

The F/H Effluent Treatment Facility (F/H ETF) must be on-line by November 1988 to treat the low level activity wastes presently being discharged to the F- and H- areas' seepage basins. The three main processes of the F/H ETF are filtration, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange. Any dissolved organics present in the F/H ETF's feed have the potential to affect operation of the reverse osmosis system. Earlier studies with F/H ETF feed simulant and 70 volume percent kerosene and 30 volume percent tri-n-butylphosphate (TBP) additions showed that the kerosene/TBP mixture results in partial fouling of reverse osmosis membranes. A more detailed analysis of the seepage basin feed has shown that TBP is the major dissolved organic compound. Since it is dissolved (soluble to about 400 ppM at 25 degree C), TBP will be present in the reverse osmosis feed unless removed by a means other than filtration. Thus the fouling effect of TBP (without kerosene) on reverse osmosis performance was investigated. 4 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs

A Review of Ultrafiltration and Forward Osmosis:application and modification

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Gong; Shuili, Yu; Yufei, Shangguan; Zhengyang, Gu; Wangzhen, Yang; Liumo, Ren

2018-03-01

As a new treatment, membrane filtration is playing a more prominent role in treating many kinds of wastewater. Among all the membrane technologies, ultrafiltration(UF) and forward osmosis(FO) technology has been widely utilized and developed in oil field and refinery produced water. However, the reports about the differences between the two kinds of membrane technology used in oily wastewater are not yet available. In this review, at first we introduce the advantages, shortcomings and applications of UF and FO membranes. Among these, we mainly illustrate the membrane fouling, which now is a big problem because it increases costs and decreases membrane life to limit the industrialization of the membrane, and the different modification methods of membranes are discussed to figure out how these ways can ease the membrane fouling. Next we make a comparison of the two membranes. Finally we illustrate the future research topics.

Study of applicability of a reverse osmosis system in the treatment of waste liquids (RAD-WASTE); Estudio de aplicabilidad de un sistema de osmosis inversa en el tratamiento de residuos liquidos (RAD-WASTE)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hortiguela Martinez, R.; Ruiz Garcia, P.; Saiz Cuesta, A.

2013-07-01

Study of alternatives to the current system of water treatment line of soils of the refueling (evaporation followed by a demineralization with ion exchange resins), with a technique more respectful with the environment as it is reverse osmosis. This process removed the soluble salts through semi-permeable membranes. These membranes are permeable to water but impermeable to most ions.

Mesoporous Silica Gel-Based Mixed Matrix Membranes for Improving Mass Transfer in Forward Osmosis: Effect of Pore Size of Filler.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jian-Yuan; Wang, Yining; Tang, Chuyang Y; Huo, Fengwei

2015-11-23

The efficiency of forward osmosis (FO) process is generally limited by the internal concentration polarization (ICP) of solutes inside its porous substrate. In this study, mesoporous silica gel (SG) with nominal pore size ranging from 4-30 nm was used as fillers to prepare SG-based mixed matrix substrates. The resulting mixed matrix membranes had significantly reduced structural parameter and enhanced membrane water permeability as a result of the improved surface porosity of the substrates. An optimal filler pore size of ~9 nm was observed. This is in direct contrast to the case of thin film nanocomposite membranes, where microporous nanoparticle fillers are loaded to the membrane rejection layer and are designed in such a way that these fillers are able to retain solutes while allowing water to permeate through them. In the current study, the mesoporous fillers are designed as channels to both water and solute molecules. FO performance was enhanced at increasing filler pore size up to 9 nm due to the lower hydraulic resistance of the fillers. Nevertheless, further increasing filler pore size to 30 nm was accompanied with reduced FO efficiency, which can be attributed to the intrusion of polymer dope into the filler pores.

Mesoporous Silica Gel–Based Mixed Matrix Membranes for Improving Mass Transfer in Forward Osmosis: Effect of Pore Size of Filler

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jian-Yuan; Wang, Yining; Tang, Chuyang Y.; Huo, Fengwei

2015-01-01

The efficiency of forward osmosis (FO) process is generally limited by the internal concentration polarization (ICP) of solutes inside its porous substrate. In this study, mesoporous silica gel (SG) with nominal pore size ranging from 4–30 nm was used as fillers to prepare SG-based mixed matrix substrates. The resulting mixed matrix membranes had significantly reduced structural parameter and enhanced membrane water permeability as a result of the improved surface porosity of the substrates. An optimal filler pore size of ~9 nm was observed. This is in direct contrast to the case of thin film nanocomposite membranes, where microporous nanoparticle fillers are loaded to the membrane rejection layer and are designed in such a way that these fillers are able to retain solutes while allowing water to permeate through them. In the current study, the mesoporous fillers are designed as channels to both water and solute molecules. FO performance was enhanced at increasing filler pore size up to 9 nm due to the lower hydraulic resistance of the fillers. Nevertheless, further increasing filler pore size to 30 nm was accompanied with reduced FO efficiency, which can be attributed to the intrusion of polymer dope into the filler pores. PMID:26592565

Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) Scaling on Polybenzimidazole and Cellulose Acetate Hollow Fiber Membranes under Forward Osmosis

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Si Cong; Su, Jincai; Fu, Feng-Jiang; Mi, Baoxia; Chung, Tai-Shung

2013-01-01

We have examined the gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) scaling phenomena on membranes with different physicochemical properties in forward osmosis (FO) processes. Three hollow fiber membranes made of (1) cellulose acetate (CA), (2) polybenzimidazole (PBI)/polyethersulfone (PES) and (3) PBI-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were studied. For the first time in FO processes, we have found that surface ionic interactions dominate gypsum scaling on the membrane surface. A 70% flux reduction was observed on negatively charged CA and PBI membrane surfaces, due to strong attractive forces. The PBI membrane surface also showed a slightly positive charge at a low pH value of 3 and exhibited a 30% flux reduction. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) force measurements confirmed a strong repulsive force between gypsum and PBI at a pH value of 3. The newly developed PBI-POSS/PAN membrane had ridge morphology and a contact angle of 51.42° ± 14.85° after the addition of hydrophilic POSS nanoparticles and 3 min thermal treatment at 95 °C. Minimal scaling and an only 1.3% flux reduction were observed at a pH value of 3. Such a ridge structure may reduce scaling by not providing a locally flat surface to the crystallite at a pH value of 3; thus, gypsum would be easily washed away from the surface. PMID:24957062

MODIFIED REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM FOR TREATMENT OF PRODUCED WATERS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

T.M. Whitworth; Liangxiong Li

2002-09-15

This report describes work performed during the first year of the project ''Modified Reverse Osmosis System for Treatment of Produced Waters.'' This research project has two objectives. The first objective is to test the use of clay membranes in the treatment of produced waters by reverse osmosis. The second objective is to test the ability of a system patented by the New Mexico Tech Research Foundation to remove salts from reverse osmosis waste streams as a solid. We performed 12 experiments using clay membranes in cross-flow experimental cells. We found that, due to dispersion in the porous frit used adjacent to the membrane, the concentration polarization layer seems to be completely (or nearly completely) destroyed at low flow rates. This observation suggests that clay membranes used with porous frit material many reach optimum rejection rates at lower pumping rates than required for use with synthetic membranes. The solute rejection efficiency decreases with increasing solution concentration. For the membranes and experiments reported here, the rejection efficiency ranged from 71% with 0.01 M NaCl solution down to 12% with 2.3 M NaCl solution. More compacted clay membranes will have higher rejection capabilities. The clay membranes used in our experiments were relatively thick (approximately 0.5 mm). The active layer of most synthetic membranes is only 0.04 {micro}m (0.00004 mm), approximately 1250 times thinner than the clay membranes used in these experiments. Yet clay membranes as thin as 12 {micro}m have been constructed (Fritz and Eady, 1985). Since Darcy's law states that the flow through a material of constant permeability is inversely proportional to it's the material's thickness, then, based on these experimental observations, a very thin clay membrane would be expected to have much higher flow rates than the ones used in these experiments. Future experiments will focus on testing very thin clay membranes. The

Biofouling of spiral wound membrane systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vrouwenvelder, J.S.

2009-01-01

Biofouling of spiral wound membrane systems High quality drinking water can be produced with membrane filtration processes like reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). Because the global demand for fresh clean water is increasing, these membrane technologies will increase in importance in the

Hydrogel-coated feed spacers in two-phase flow cleaning in spiral wound membrane elements: A novel platform for eco-friendly biofouling mitigation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wibisono, Y.; Yandi, Wetra; Golabi, Mohsen; Nugraha, Roni; Cornelissen, Emile R.; Kemperman, Antonius J.B.; Ederth, Thomas; Nijmeijer, Dorothea C.

2015-01-01

Biofouling is still a major challenge in the application of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes. Here we present a platform approach for environmentally friendly biofouling control using a combination of a hydrogel-coated feed spacer and two-phase flow cleaning. Neutral

Effect of different commercial feed spacers on biofouling of reverse osmosis membrane systems: A numerical study

KAUST Repository

Bucs, Szilard

2014-06-01

Feed spacers and hydrodynamics have been found relevant for the impact of biofouling on performance in reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane systems.The objectives of this study on biofouling development were to determine the impact of (i) linear flow velocity and bacterial cell load, (ii) biomass location and (iii) various feed spacer geometries as applied in practice as well as a modified geometry spacer.A three-dimensional mathematical model for biofouling of feed spacer channels including hydrodynamics, solute mass transport and biofilm formation was developed in COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB software.Results of this study indicate that the feed channel pressure drop increase caused by biofilm formation can be reduced by using thicker and/or modified feed spacer geometry and/or a lower flow rate in the feed channel. The increase of feed channel pressure drop by biomass accumulation is shown to be strongly influenced by the location of biomass. Results of numerical simulations are in satisfactory agreement with experimental data, indicating that this micro-scale mechanistic model is representative for practice. The developed model can help to understand better the biofouling process of spiral-wound RO and NF membrane systems and to develop strategies to reduce and control biofouling. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Effect of different commercial feed spacers on biofouling of reverse osmosis membrane systems: A numerical study

KAUST Repository

Bucs, Szilard; Radu, Andrea I.; Lavric, Vasile; Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.; Picioreanu, Cristian

2014-01-01

Feed spacers and hydrodynamics have been found relevant for the impact of biofouling on performance in reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane systems.The objectives of this study on biofouling development were to determine the impact of (i) linear flow velocity and bacterial cell load, (ii) biomass location and (iii) various feed spacer geometries as applied in practice as well as a modified geometry spacer.A three-dimensional mathematical model for biofouling of feed spacer channels including hydrodynamics, solute mass transport and biofilm formation was developed in COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB software.Results of this study indicate that the feed channel pressure drop increase caused by biofilm formation can be reduced by using thicker and/or modified feed spacer geometry and/or a lower flow rate in the feed channel. The increase of feed channel pressure drop by biomass accumulation is shown to be strongly influenced by the location of biomass. Results of numerical simulations are in satisfactory agreement with experimental data, indicating that this micro-scale mechanistic model is representative for practice. The developed model can help to understand better the biofouling process of spiral-wound RO and NF membrane systems and to develop strategies to reduce and control biofouling. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Liquid radwaste processing with crossflow microfiltration and spiral wound reverse osmosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, S.K. Sen; Slade, J.A.; Tulk, W.S.

1995-02-01

The useful lifetime of thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide membranes used for the processing of variable aqueous waste at Chalk River Labs (CRL) by spiral wound reverse osmosis (SWRO) is about 3000 hours. This service lifetime is achievable through regular cleaning cycles which range between 70 to 200 m 3 of waste treated. After 3000 hours of service the SWRO membranes deteriorate rapidly, and more frequent shutdowns are required for chemical cleaning cycles. The overall rejection efficiency of the SWRO membranes at an operating pH of about 6, and a volumetric recovery of 85%, decreased from about 99.5% with 3000 hours of service, to 95% after 4000 hours. Rapid increases in pressure drop due to increased deposition of foulants in deteriorated membrane areas were noted after 3000 hours of field service. Presently the crossflow microfiltration system is operated at pH 7 and removes 45% of the gross β/γ contaminants and 70% of the α radioactivity. Iron concentrations are reduced to below 1 mg/L from 50 mg/L, which minimizes fouling due to ferric hydroxide precipitates on the TFC membranes. About 60% of β/γ in the permeate stream is present as 137 Cs radioactivity. The combined removal efficiencies for critical contaminants employing both microfiltration and reverse osmosis operations are as follows: α : 99.9%; β/γ : 99.6%; PO 4 3- : 99.1%. (author). 8 refs., 1 tab., 4 figs

Removal of organic micro-pollutants (phenol, aniline and nitrobenzene) via forward osmosis (FO) process: Evaluation of FO as an alternative method to reverse osmosis (RO).

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Yue; Liu, Xiang-Yang; Chung, Tai-Shung; Weber, Martin; Staudt, Claudia; Maletzko, Christian

2016-03-15

In this study, we have explored and compared the effectiveness of using (1) lab-fabricated forward osmosis (FO) membranes under both FO and reverse osmosis (RO) modes and (2) commercially available RO membranes under the RO mode for the removal of organic micro-pollutants. The lab-fabricated FO membranes are thin film composite (TFC) membranes consisting of a polyamide layer and a porous substrate cast from three different materials; namely, Matrimid, polyethersulfone (PESU) and sulfonated polyphenylene sulfone (sPPSU). The results show that the FO mode is superior to the RO mode in the removal of phenol, aniline and nitrobenzene from wastewater. The rejections of all three TFC membranes to all the three organic micro-pollutants under the FO processes are higher than 72% and can be even higher than 90% for aniline when a 1000 ppm aromatic aqueous solution and 1 M NaCl are employed as feeds. These performances outperform the results obtained from themselves and commercially available RO membranes under the RO mode. In addition, the rejection can be maintained even when treating a more concentrated feed solution (2000 ppm). The removal performance can be further enhanced by using a more concentrated draw solution (2 M). The water flux is almost doubled, and the rejection increment can reach up to 17%. Moreover, it was observed that annealing as a post-treatment would help compact the membrane selective layer and further enhance the separating efficiency. The obtained organic micro-pollutant rejections and water fluxes under various feasible operating conditions indicate that the FO process has potential to be a viable treatment for wastewater containing organic micro-pollutants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Robust High Performance Aquaporin based Biomimetic Membranes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Helix Nielsen, Claus; Zhao, Yichun; Qiu, C.

2013-01-01

on top of a support membrane. Control membranes, either without aquaporins or with the inactive AqpZ R189A mutant aquaporin served as controls. The separation performance of the membranes was evaluated by cross-flow forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) tests. In RO the ABM achieved a water......Aquaporins are water channel proteins with high water permeability and solute rejection, which makes them promising for preparing high-performance biomimetic membranes. Despite the growing interest in aquaporin-based biomimetic membranes (ABMs), it is challenging to produce robust and defect...... permeability of ~ 4 L/(m2 h bar) with a NaCl rejection > 97% at an applied hydraulic pressure of 5 bar. The water permeability was ~40% higher compared to a commercial brackish water RO membrane (BW30) and an order of magnitude higher compared to a seawater RO membrane (SW30HR). In FO, the ABMs had > 90...

Study of reverse osmosis applicability to light water reactor radwaste processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Markind, J.; Van Tran, T.

1978-12-01

Objectives were to collect and evaluate documented performance data of existing reverse-osmosis/ultrafiltration processes utilized for treating low-level liquid radioactive wastes, originating from light-water-reactor (LWR) nuclear power plants. Relevant information was collected by communication both written and verbal with membrane experts known to be active in the nuclear industry, and by conducting manual and computer searches. The generated information was evaluated on the basis of membrane performance characteristics relevant to nuclear engineering system analysis. 39 figures, 34 tables

Integrating seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation forward osmosis process using thin-film composite mixed matrix membrane with functionalized carbon nanotube blended polyethersulfone support layer.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Hyeon-Gyu; Son, Moon; Choi, Heechul

2017-10-01

Thin-film composite mixed matrix membrane (TFC MMM) with functionalized carbon nanotube (fCNT) blended in polyethersulfone (PES) support layer was synthesized via interfacial polymerization and phase inversion. This membrane was firstly tested in lab-scale integrating seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation forward osmosis (FO) process. Water flux of TFC MMM was increased by 72% compared to that of TFC membrane due to enhanced hydrophilicity. Although TFC MMM showed lower water flux than TFC commercial membrane, enhanced reverse salt flux selectivity (RSFS) of TFC MMM was observed compared to TFC membrane (15% higher) and TFC commercial membrane (4% higher), representing membrane permselectivity. Under effluent organic matter (EfOM) fouling test, 16% less normalized flux decline of TFC MMM was observed compared to TFC membrane. There was 8% less decline of TFC MMM compared to TFC commercial membrane due to fCNT effect on repulsive foulant-membrane interaction enhancement, caused by negatively charged membrane surface. After 10 min physical cleaning, TFC MMM displayed higher recovered normalized flux than TFC membrane (6%) and TFC commercial membrane (4%); this was also supported by visualized characterization of fouling layer. This study presents application of TFC MMM to integrated seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation FO process for the first time. It can be concluded that EfOM fouling of TFC MMM was suppressed due to repulsive foulant-membrane interaction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reverse osmosis application studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golomb, A.

1982-02-01

To assess the feasibility of applying reverse osmosis (RO) and ultrafiltration (UF) for effective treatment of process and waste streams from operations at Ontario Hydro's thermal and nuclear stations, an extensive literature survey has been carried out. It is concluded that RO is not at present economic for pretreatment of Great Lakes water prior to ion exchange demineralization for boiler makeup. Using both conventional and novel commercial membrane modules, RO pilot studies are recommended for treatment of boiler cleaning wastes, fly ash leachates, and flue gas desulphurization scrubber discharges for removal of heavy metals. Volume reduction and decontamination of nuclear station low-level active liquid waste streams by RO/UF also appear promising. Research programmes are proposed

Utilization of reverse osmosis (RO) for reuse of MBR-treated wastewater in irrigation-preliminary tests and quality analysis of product water.

Science.gov (United States)

Bunani, Samuel; Yörükoğlu, Eren; Sert, Gökhan; Kabay, Nalan; Yüksel, Ümran; Yüksel, Mithat; Egemen, Özdemir; Pek, Taylan Özgür

2018-02-01

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluent collected from a wastewater treatment plant installed at an industrial zone was used for reverse osmosis (RO) membrane tests in the laboratory. For this, two different GE Osmonics RO membranes (AK-BWRO and AD-SWRO) were employed. The results showed that AK-brackish water reverse osmosis (AK-BWRO) and AD-seawater reverse osmosis (AD-SWRO) membranes have almost similar rejection performances regarding analyzed parameters such as conductivity, salinity, color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total organic carbon (TOC). On the other hand, these membranes behaved quite differently considering their permeate water flux at the same applied pressure of 10 bar. AD-SWRO membrane was also tested at 20 bar. The results revealed that AD-SWRO membrane had almost the same rejections either at 10 or at 20 bar of applied pressure. Compared with irrigation water standards, AK-BWRO and AD-SWRO gave an effluent with low salinity value and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) which makes it unsuitable for irrigation due to the infiltration problems risi0ng from unbalanced values of salinity and SAR. Combination of MBR effluent and RO effluent at respective proportions of 0.3:0.7 and 0.4:0.6 for AK-BWRO and AD-SWRO, respectively, are the optimum mixing ratios to overcome the infiltration hazard problem. Choice of less-sensitive crops to chloride and sodium ions is another strategy to overcome all hazards which may arise from above suggested mixing proportions.

Development of the pilot system for radioactive laundry waste treatment using UV photo-oxidation process and reverse osmosis membrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, S. M.; Park, J. K.; Kim, J. B.; Shin, S. W.; Lee, M. C.

1999-01-01

The pilot system for radioactive liquid laundry waste was developed with treatment capacity 1ton/hr and set up in the Yonkwang unit No.4. The system is composed of tank module, reverse osmosis membrane system and UV/H2O2 photo-oxidation process unit. The R/O system consists of the BW unit for low concentration and the SW unit for high concentration. The BW unit possesses 4 of R/O membranes and it can concentrate the feed water volume down to 1/10. This concentrated feed water can be reduced again 1/10 in its volume in the SW unit which is composed of 4 of R/O membranes. The UV/H2O2 photo-oxidation process unit was determined for the detergent removal process. The pilot system was verified in its capability through the continuous operation and enrichment operation using the actual liquid waste of the power plant. The design criteria and data for the industrial system were yielded. The efficiency of the UV/H2O2 photo-oxidation process and the optimum operational procedure were analysed. The decontamination factor of radionuclides, cobalt and cesium was measured. This on-site test showed the experimental result of the DF more than 100 and concentration rate more than 100

Designing a reverse osmosis desalination plant, main parameters and compounds; Diseno de una planta desilinizadora de osmosis inversa, parametros y componentes principales

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arango Mesa, H. [Universidad del Valle. Cali. Colombia (Colombia); Gomez Gotor, A. [Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain)

1998-12-31

This paper comments on some of the design features which should be taken into account in planning a reverse osmosis sea water desalination plant. It also examine the components of some of the plant`s main units, such as the high pressure pumping unit and energy recovering system and the types of membrane modules and their use. Finally, it compares that most common commercially available products. (Author) 6 refs.

Concentration of pineapple juice by reverse osmosis: physicochemical characteristics and consumer acceptance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Simões Couto

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Reverse osmosis has been used for the concentration of fruit juices with promising considering the quality of the obtained products. The objective of this study was to concentrate single strength pineapple juice by reverse osmosis. The concentration was carried out with polyamide composite membranes in a 0.65 m² plate and frame module at 60 bar transmembrane pressure at 20 °C. The permeate flux was 17 L.hm-2. The total soluble solid content of the juice increased from 11 to 31 °Brix corresponding to a Volumetric Concentration Factor (VCF of 2.9. The concentration of soluble solids, total solids, and total acidity increased proportionally to FCV. The concentrated juice and three commercial concentrated pineapple juices were evaluated regarding preference and purchase intention by 79 pineapple juice consumers. The concentrated juice by reverse osmosis was the preferred among consumers. It can be concluded that this process may be considered an alternative to the pre-concentration of fruit juices.

Membrane-based seawater desalination: Present and future prospects

KAUST Repository

Amy, Gary L.

2016-10-20

Given increasing regional water scarcity and that almost half of the world\\'s population lives within 100 km of an ocean, seawater represents a virtually infinite water resource. However, its exploitation is presently limited by the significant specific energy consumption (kWh/m) required by conventional desalination technologies, further exasperated by high unit costs ($/m) and environmental impacts including GHG emissions (g CO-eq/m), organism impingement/entrainment through intakes, and brine disposal through outfalls. This paper explores the state-of-the-art in present seawater desalination practice, emphasizing membrane-based technologies, while identifying future opportunities in step improvements to conventional technologies and development of emerging, potentially disruptive, technologies through advances in material science, process engineering, and system integration. In this paper, seawater reverse osmosis (RO) serves as the baseline conventional technology. The discussion extends beyond desalting processes into membrane-based salinity gradient energy production processes, which can provide an energy offset to desalination process energy requirements. The future membrane landscape in membrane-based desalination and salinity gradient energy is projected to include ultrahigh permeability RO membranes, renewable-energy driven desalination, and emerging processes including closed-circuit RO, membrane distillation, forward osmosis, pressure retarded osmosis, and reverse electrodialysis according various niche applications and/or hybrids, operating separately or in conjunction with RO.

Effect of engineered environment on microbial community structure in biofilter and biofilm on reverse osmosis membrane.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Sanghyun; Cho, Kyungjin; Jeong, Dawoon; Lee, Seockheon; Leiknes, TorOve; Vigneswaran, Saravanamuthu; Bae, Hyokwan

2017-11-01

Four dual media filters (DMFs) were operated in a biofiltration mode with different engineered environments (DMF I and II: coagulation with/without acidification and DMF III and IV: without/with chlorination). Designed biofilm enrichment reactors (BERs) containing the removable reverse osmosis (RO) coupons, were connected at the end of the DMFs in parallel to analyze the biofilm on the RO membrane by DMF effluents. Filtration performances were evaluated in terms of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and assimilable organic carbon (AOC). Organic foulants on the RO membrane were also quantified and fractionized. The bacterial community structures in liquid (seawater and effluent) and biofilm (DMF and RO) samples were analyzed using 454-pyrosequencing. The DMF IV fed with the chlorinated seawater demonstrated the highest reductions of DOC including LMW-N as well as AOC among the other DMFs. The DMF IV was also effective in reducing organic foulants on the RO membrane surface. The bacterial community structure was grouped according to the sample phase (i.e., liquid and biofilm samples), sampling location (i.e., DMF and RO samples), and chlorination (chlorinated and non-chlorinated samples). In particular, the biofilm community in the DMF IV differed from the other DMF treatments, suggesting that chlorination exerted as stronger selective pressure than pH adjustment or coagulation on the biofilm community. In the DMF IV, several chemoorganotrophic chlorine-resistant biofilm-forming bacteria such as Hyphomonas, Erythrobacter, and Sphingomonas were predominant, and they may enhance organic carbon degradation efficiency. Diverse halophilic or halotolerant organic degraders were also found in other DMFs (i.e., DMF I, II, and III). Various kinds of dominant biofilm-forming bacteria were also investigated in RO membrane samples; the results provided possible candidates that cause biofouling when DMF process is applied as the pretreatment option for the RO process. Copyright �

Effect of engineered environment on microbial community structure in biofilter and biofilm on reverse osmosis membrane

KAUST Repository

Jeong, Sanghyun

2017-07-25

Four dual media filters (DMFs) were operated in a biofiltration mode with different engineered environments (DMF I and II: coagulation with/without acidification and DMF III and IV: without/with chlorination). Designed biofilm enrichment reactors (BERs) containing the removable reverse osmosis (RO) coupons, were connected at the end of the DMFs in parallel to analyze the biofilm on the RO membrane by DMF effluents. Filtration performances were evaluated in terms of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and assimilable organic carbon (AOC). Organic foulants on the RO membrane were also quantified and fractionized. The bacterial community structures in liquid (seawater and effluent) and biofilm (DMF and RO) samples were analyzed using 454-pyrosequencing. The DMF IV fed with the chlorinated seawater demonstrated the highest reductions of DOC including LMW-N as well as AOC among the other DMFs. The DMF IV was also effective in reducing organic foulants on the RO membrane surface. The bacterial community structure was grouped according to the sample phase (i.e., liquid and biofilm samples), sampling location (i.e., DMF and RO samples), and chlorination (chlorinated and non-chlorinated samples). In particular, the biofilm community in the DMF IV differed from the other DMF treatments, suggesting that chlorination exerted as stronger selective pressure than pH adjustment or coagulation on the biofilm community. In the DMF IV, several chemoorganotrophic chlorine-resistant biofilm-forming bacteria such as Hyphomonas, Erythrobacter, and Sphingomonas were predominant, and they may enhance organic carbon degradation efficiency. Diverse halophilic or halotolerant organic degraders were also found in other DMFs (i.e., DMF I, II, and III). Various kinds of dominant biofilm-forming bacteria were also investigated in RO membrane samples; the results provided possible candidates that cause biofouling when DMF process is applied as the pretreatment option for the RO process.

The effects of physicochemical wastewater treatment operations on forward osmosis

OpenAIRE

Hey, Tobias; Bajraktari, Niada; Vogel, Jörg; Hélix-Nielsen, Claus; La Cour Jansen, Jes; Jönsson, Karin

2016-01-01

Raw municipal wastewater from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant was physicochemically pretreated in a large pilot-scale system comprising coagulation, flocculation, microsieve and microfiltration operated in various configurations. The produced microsieve filtrates and microfiltration permeates were then concentrated using forward osmosis (FO). Aquaporin Inside(TM) FO membranes were used for both the microsieve filtrate and microfiltration permeates, and Hydration Technologies Inc.-thin...

Validation and analysis of forward osmosis CFD model in complex 3D geometries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gruber, Mathias F.; Gruber, Mathias F.; Johnson, Carl J.

2012-01-01

In forward osmosis (FO), an osmotic pressure gradient generated across a semi-permeable membrane is used to generate water transport from a dilute feed solution into a concentrated draw solution. This principle has shown great promise in the areas of water purification, wastewater treatment...

Learning about (Not by) Osmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Borovoy, Alexander

1991-01-01

Describes the process of osmosis from its discovery by Nollet in 1848 to modern applications. Uses experimental descriptions, illustrations, and photographs to explain osmosis. Discusses the technology of producing perfect filters and their applications in reverse osmosis to purify salt water and to filter blood in kidney machines. (PR)

Design aspects of reverse osmosis plants for rad waste treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prabhakar, S.; Panicker, S.T.; Misra, B.M.

1993-01-01

The potential of reverse osmosis process has been well established in the nuclear waste treatment. The nuclear wastes are characterised by chemically insignificant levels of radioactive nuclides and small amounts (a few hundred ppm) of inactive ionic species. The basic design objectives in these systems aim at higher volume reduction factors, i.e. corresponding to recovery factor of more than 0.9 and a decontamination factor of at least 10, i.e. corresponding to a solute rejection of more than 90%. In this paper, the salient aspects of the design of a reverse osmosis system for radioactive waste treatment is discussed in the light of the operating experience of an experimental plant based on plate module configuration and utilizing cellulose acetate membranes prepared in our laboratory. (author). 3 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs

Hydrogel-coated feed spacers in two-phase flow cleaning in spiral wound membrane elements: A novel platform for eco-friendly biofouling mitigation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wibisono, Yusuf; Yandi, Wetra; Golabi, Mohsen; Nugraha, Roni; Cornelissen, Emile; Kemperman, A.J.B.; Ederth, Thomas; Nijmeijer, Kitty

2015-01-01

ng is still a major challenge in the application of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes. Here we present a platform approach for environmentally friendly biofouling control using a combination of a Hydrogel-coated feed spacer and two-phase flow cleaning. Neutral (polyHEMA-co-PEG10MA),

Effectiveness of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) pretreatment systems in removing transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) substances

KAUST Repository

Lee, Shang-Tse

2015-01-01

Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) have been reported as one of the main factors of membrane fouling in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) process. Research has been focused on algal TEP so far, overlooking bacterial TEP. This thesis investigated

One Step Membrane Filtration : A fundamental study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haidari, A.H.

2017-01-01

This study focuses on spiral-wound membrane (SWM) modules, which are the most common commercially available membrane modules for reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). While RO membranes can remove almost all kinds of substances from the feed water, they are usually equipped with pretreatment

Impact of reverse nutrient diffusion on membrane biofouling in fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis

KAUST Repository

Li, Sheng; Kim, Youngjin; Chekli, Laura; Phuntsho, Sherub; Shon, Ho Kyong; Leiknes, TorOve; Ghaffour, NorEddine

2017-01-01

Biofouling in fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) for water reuse was investigated by spiking pure bacteria species Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1+GFP and using three different fertilizers KNO3, KCl and KH2PO4 as draw solutions. The performance

RO-75, Reverse Osmosis Plant Design Optimization and Cost Optimization