Forward Osmosis in Wastewater Treatment Processes

Abstract

In recent years, membrane technology has been widely used in wastewater treatment and water 30 purification. Membrane technology is simple to operate and produces very high quality water 31 for human consumption and industrial purposes. One of the promising technologies for water 32 and wastewater treatment is the application of forward osmosis. Essentially, forward osmosis 33 is a process in which water is driven through a semipermeable membrane from a feed solution 34 to a draw solution due to the osmotic pressure gradient across the membrane. The immediate 35 advantage over existing pressure driven membrane technologies is that the forward osmosis 36 process per se eliminates the need for operation with high hydraulic pressure and forward 37 osmosis has low fouling tendency. Hence, it provides an opportunity for saving energy and 38 membrane replacement cost. However, there are many limitations that still need to be 39 addressed. Here we briefly review some of the applications within water purification and new 40 developments in forward osmosis membrane fabrication.