Forward Osmosis (FO), Is It A Real Desalination Technique?
Published on by Mahmoud Hussein, Holding Company for water and wastewater - Manager of drinking water quality Department in Academic
Desalination techniques are numerous however some policymakers prefer certain types over others according to the quality of the produced water Energy consumption and the cost of the overall process.
Reverse osmosis (RO) and Multi-Stage-Flash Distillation (MSF) exhibit the most used desalination techniques in the word. However, the most headache causing issue in Desalination is power consumption and cost. So many efforts have been done to find a solution for that problem. Especially, desalination is a vital process for providing water in coastal areas.
One of the alternatives to RO and MSF is Forward Osmosis (FO) which, introduced as a low energy consuming technique. FO targets separating salts from salty water by mean of a membrane but with simple and natural diffusion without any exerted external pressure. The main controlling factor in the osmosis (forward and reverse) is the osmotic pressure which, forces the water to go from the highly concentrated solution to the lower one.
So Forward Osmosis (FO) plays on that through applying a false high concentration of a certain ion (s) in the solution at the product side to generate an osmotic pressure towards the product solution. The solutes used in FO are called “Osmotic Agents (OAs)”. Therefore a treatment stage should be applied after the separation process is accomplished to remove and/or recovery of the residuals from OAs to reuse it again.
Many oppositions to FO was recorded especially in literature and research reviews due to the cost of the recovery unit operation particularly in the case of hardly separated OAs. Some OAs were recorded to be toxic and its traces could threaten living being. That could limit the use of FO in activities related to communities.
In conclusion, FO is considered as a good option for desalination of salt water but it needs more attention to the type of OAs and the removal and recovery methods used.
Attached link
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/forward-osmosis-fo-real-desalination-technique-mahmoud-fouad/Media
Taxonomy
- Treatment
- Reverse Osmosis
- Technology
- Research
- Energy Efficiency
- Desalination
- Reverse Osmosis
- Energy Efficiency
- Forward Osmosis
- Sustainable Desalination
- Water Supply