Abstract
Abstract. The forward osmosis (FO) process has been considered to be a viable option for water desalination in comparison to the traditional processes like reverse osmosis, regarding energy consumption and economical operation. In this work, a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber support layer was prepared using the electrospinning process as a modern method. Then, an interfacial polymerization reaction between m-phenylenediamine (MPD) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) was carried out to generate a polyamide selective thin-film composite (TFC) membrane on the support layer. The TFC membrane was tested in FO mode (feed solution facing the active layer) using the standard methodology and compared to a commercially available cellulose triacetate membrane (CTA). The synthesized membrane showed a high performance in terms of water flux (16 Lm −2 h−1) but traded the salt rejection (4 gm−2 h−1) compared with the commercial CTA membrane (water flux = 13 Lm−2 h−1 and salt rejection = 3 gm−2 h−1) at no applied pressure and room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle, mechanical properties, porosity, and performance characterizations were conducted to examine the membrane.
Highlights
Forward osmosis (FO) is an osmotically driven membrane process that uses the difference in osmotic pressure between the feed solution and a highly concentrated solution to drive the pure water from a feed solution through the membrane to the draw solution
This membrane was provided by Hydration Technology Innovations (HTI) Water Technology (Albany, OR), which is widely applied for a number of FO applications, such as seawater desalination (Linares et al, 2017), wastewater treatment (Al-Furaiji et al, 2019), and advanced life support systems (Cath et al, 2005)
It can be seen from the Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image after the IP reaction that it has a leaf-like morphology compared to the PAN support layer, which has a nanofibrous structure
Summary
Forward osmosis (FO) is an osmotically driven membrane process that uses the difference in osmotic pressure between the feed solution and a highly concentrated solution (called the draw solution) to drive the pure water from a feed solution through the membrane to the draw solution. The FO process has many advantages over other types of filtration processes, such as its low or no trans-pressure, very high rejection for various contaminants, low membrane fouling tendency, and easy building and operating system. One of the crucial aspects of developing the FO process is making a suitable membrane for this process. The ideal membrane has to be highly porous and thin, have good mechanical properties, and provide high rejection of salts and impurities (Ang et al, 2019). Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes have been widely used in reverse osmosis studies and proven to have excellent performance in desalination (Kadhom et al, 2016; Kadhom and Deng, 2019). TFC membranes have attracted more attention in FO applications
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