Osmotically driven membrane processes are emerging water treatment technologies that have demonstrated their versatility for many applications in desalination and industrial or municipal wastewater treatment and reclamation. Past studies have primarily investigated novel applications of the forward osmosis process to augment and improve existing water treatment methods. Significant effort has also been exerted towards understanding the role of membrane properties and hydrodynamic parameters as they relate to optimizing solvent flux; however, relatively little is known about the mechanism and extent of solute diffusion in osmotically driven processes. The lack of knowledge in this area stems from a dogmatic tendency to assume that forward osmosis membranes are highly selective, and therefore permit only minute amounts of solute to diffuse through the membrane. Results obtained in the current study serve to quantify the extent and severity of solute diffusion in forward osmosis, which may have substantial implication for engineered applications of osmotically driven membrane processes.
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