Pressure-retarded osmosis with wastewater concentrate feed: Fouling process considerations

Abstract

Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) has attracted worldwide attention for its potential applications in renewable osmotic energy harvesting, low energy seawater desalination, and industrial waste brine disposal. However, membrane fouling is one of the major issues limiting PRO performance with the use of a high-salinity draw solution and a low-value impaired feedwater. This study systematically investigated membrane fouling in the PRO process using a real wastewater retentate (a waste byproduct from wastewater reclamation plants) as the PRO feed. Organic fouling (e.g., by humic substances) and inorganic fouling (e.g., by calcium phosphate) were identified to be the major types of fouling, where the latter dominated the overall water-flux decline. The internal PRO membrane fouling was exacerbated by internal concentration polarization (ICP) and intermolecular interactions between the organic macromolecules and the scaling precursor ions (e.g., Ca2+). A limiting flux that was independent of the initial flux (i.e., applied pressure) was observed during the PRO fouling and was explained by a novel PRO limiting flux model. A membrane with a smaller structural parameter could achieve a higher limiting flux in PRO. A simple and effective pressure-assisted osmotic backwashing protocol was developed to clean the internally fouled membrane that could restore over 92% of the water flux within a short cleaning period (15mins). The PRO performance could also be significantly improved by decreasing the feedwater pH that mitigated alkaline scaling. Finally, performing the PRO membrane fouling test in the active-layer-facing-feed-solution (AL-FS) orientation revealed that the integral cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane exhibited strong mechanical stability and anti-fouling tendency whereas the thin-film composite (TFC) membrane was not mechanically stable in this orientation. This study for the first time identified that an integral membrane instead of a TFC membrane is an excellent candidate for PRO operation in the AL-FS mode for fouling control.