Performance comparison of a polyamide-based forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane for seawater desalination in a forward osmosis process

摘要

Forward osmosis (FO) has been attracting much interest most recently due to its lower energy consumption for desalination than that of the conventional reverse osmosis (RO) membrane and FO is increasingly recognized as an alternative separation technology for water scarcity. In this study, FO membrane is composed of a polyamide active layer coated onto the porous support layer made of hydrophilic polymer. The performances of FO were further compared with those of the conventional RO without non-woven support in terms of water flux, salt rejection, and reversible diffusion of salts (RDS).