Removal of pharmaceuticals by fouled forward osmosis membranes: Impact of DOM fractions, Ca2+ and real water

Abstract

This study systematically investigated the impact of dissolved organic matters (DOM) fractions, Ca2+, membrane orientation and real water matrix on the membrane fouling and the subsequent pharmaceutical retention in forward osmosis (FO). Ca2+ increased the removal of carbamazepine (CBZ) through steric effect, while it reduced sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) removal due to reduced electrostatic repulsion and enhanced external concentration polarization for three organic foulants. The study of operating mode showed that the pharmaceutical removal in pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) mode were lower than those in FO mode for both the baseline and HA fouling, which was attributed to the concentrative internal concentration polarization caused by long-term accumulation of pharmaceuticals or HA in support layer. In terms of the real water tests, the secondary effluent used as feed solution caused higher hydrophilicity and negative charge of fouled FO membrane, leading to increased removal of pharmaceuticals. Seawater used as draw solution also caused severe fouling in the support layer of FO with humic acid-like material as major foulants, increasing the removal of SMZ because of enhanced steric hindrance and electrostatic repulsion. However, the combined effects of increased adsorption and steric effect resulted in little change for the CBZ removal. This study gave implications on the practical application of FO process for pharmaceutical removal.