Performance comparison of thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes

Abstract

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging low-energy technology. Much effort was given on developing a new membrane material and engineering membrane structure to improve the performance of FO membranes. The performances of two newly developed polyamide-based thin-film composite (TFC) FO membranes were tested and compared with the commercially available cellulose triacetate (CTA) FO membrane. The intrinsic properties of the two TFC FO membranes determined in RO experiments indicate superior performance of the membranes. When tested in FO experiments, TFC membranes delivered consistent results, confirming their outstanding permeability and selectivity properties. The study shows that future studies on membrane fouling will be necessary to have a better understanding of membrane performance and to further optimize membrane properties.

Keywords:

• Forward osmosis (FO)
• Reverse osmosis (RO)
• Thin-film composite
• Salt rejection
• Specific reverse solute flux
• Internal concentration polarization (ICP)

Acknowledgment

This study was supported by Woonjin Chemical Co. Ltd.

Notes

Presented at The Fifth Desalination Workshop (IDW 2012), 28–31 October, 2012, Jeju, Korea