Chemistry and product quality of an NH3-CO2 forward osmosis desalination system

摘要

This study examined the chemistry of a forward osmosis (FO) desalination system, which employs ammonium bicarbonate as the draw solute. The Indophenol blue photometric technique and a total carbon analyzer were used to determine the ammonia concentration and carbonate species concentration, respectively. The equilibrium relationships of the concerned species in water were used to analyze the distribution of ionic and gaseous species present in the solution at different stages of the process. The results can be used to evaluate the economic and environmental feasibility of the FO desalination process for water supply.