Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging water treatment technology with potential applications in desalination and wastewater reclamation. In FO, water is extracted from a feed solution using the high osmotic pressure of a hypertonic solution that flows on the opposite side of a semipermeable membrane; however, solutes diffuse simultaneously through the membrane in both directions and may jeopardiz...

Desalination that produces clean freshwater from seawater holds the promise of solving the global water shortage for drinking, agriculture and industry. However, conventional desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation involve large amounts of energy consumption, and the semipermeable membranes widely used in reverse osmosis face the challenge to provide a high th...

This study seeks to evaluate the performance and economic feasibility of the forward osmosis (FO)-reverse osmosis (RO) hybrid process; to propose a guideline by which this hybrid process might be more price-competitive in the field. A solution-diffusion model modified with film theory was applied to analyze the effects of concentration polarization, water, and salt transport coefficient on flux...

Abstract: Coober Pedy is a remote town in South Australia with abundant solar radiation and scarce and low quality water, where a reverse osmosis plant has been operating since 1967. This paper evaluates the feasibility of powering the plant with solar or photovoltaic (PV) panels whilst avoiding energy storage in batteries. Pilot tests were performed in October 2005 with a small scale PV-powere...

A novel thin-film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was developed by the interfacial polymerization (IP) of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylene diamine (MPD) on the hollow fibre ultrafiltration polysulphone (PS) membrane. The performance of the TFC membrane was optimized by studying the preparation parameters, which included monomer TMC concentration, monomer MPD concentration ...

A new membrane process is described that can be used to recoverplating chemicals from electroplating rinse waters. The process, called coupled transport, is based on liquid membranes that are comprised of a thin, polymeric microporous support containing a metal-ion complexing agent within the pores. Metal ions present in the rinse solutions are transported across these membranes and can be conc...

Atherosclerosis is a major complication of chronic renal failure. Microinflammation is involved in atherogenesis and is associated with uremia and dialysis. The role of dialysate water contamination in inducing inflammation has been debated. Our aim was to study inflammatory markers in patients on chronic dialysis, before and 3 to 6 months after switching the water purification system from deio...