MONO/DI-ammonium phosphate fertilizers as draw solutions for forward osmosis desalination

Abstract

Forward osmosis (FO) can be suitably used to desalinate water for irrigation using fertilizer as draw agent due to the desalinated water containing diluted draw solution. Mono-ammonium hydrogen phosphate (MAP) and di-ammonium hydrogen phosphate (DAP) are the important group of the most concentrated soluble fertilizer materials containing both N and P, essential fertilizer elements needed by the plants. The comparative assessment of these two fertilizers as draw solution (DS) for FO desalination was conducted. The results indicate that both MAP and DAP can be used as a DS for FO desalination and for direct fertigation although concentration polarization significantly affected the water flux. MAP performed slightly better in terms of pure water flux. However, the performance ratio of DAP was comparable to MAP when saline feed water was used. Furthermore, DAP was seen as a better DS candidate for desalination and fertigation due to significantly lower reverse solute flux.