Impacts of Climate Change on Seawater Temperature and Total Dissolved Solids: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions for Reverse Osmosis Desalination in the Arabian Gulf Region

This article examines the influence of seawater temperature and total dissolved solids (TDS) on reverse osmosis (RO) desalination in the Arabian Gulf region, with a focus on the impact of climate change. The study highlights the changes in seawater temperature and TDS levels over the years and discusses their effects on the efficiency and productivity of RO desalination plants. It emphasizes the importance of monitoring TDS levels and controlling seawater temperature to optimize water production. The article also suggests various solutions, including intensive pre-treatment, development of high-performance membranes, exploration of alternative water sources, and regulation of discharges into the Gulf, to ensure sustainable water supply in the face of rising TDS levels and seawater temperature. Further research and comprehensive monitoring are recommended to understand the implications of these findings and develop effective strategies for the management of marine resources in the Arabian Gulf.

Piloting Study on Biofouling Control of Reverse Osmosis System in Steel Mill Wastewater Reuse

The biofouling of RO （Reverse Osmosis） system is one of the most common problems in highly contaminated demineralization and wastewater reuse system. The biological fouling occurs due to the bacteria growth and proliferation under nutritive environment, resulting in a dramatic increase of dP （differential pressure） in the RO system, which requires frequent system shutdown for cleaning. This paper discusses the effectiveness of low-dP RO element and periodic flushing on the biofouling scheme of industrial steel mill wastewater reuse system. The low-dP RO element is able to provide low RO system dP, which is expressed to be lower biofouling starting point during the industrial system operation. However, the periodic flushing utilizes fresh water to remove the biofilm deposit along with feed channel. The long term operation performance demonstrated strong caustic is effective in removing the biofilm and recovering RO system performance. It is experimentally validated that, in the case of a high biofouling environment, low-dP RO element and periodic flushing is able to extend the cleaning cycles by 36.6% and 11.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, a joint application of both methods is proven to improve the biofouling control and extend the cleaning cycle by 62.5%, as compared to standard RO technology.

Performance of Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes in Metal Effluent Treatment

The performance of different nanofiltration （NF） and reverse osmosis （RO） membranes was studied in treating the toxic metal effluent from metallurgical industry. The characteristics and filtration behavior of the processes including the wastewater flux, salt rejection and ion rejection versus operating pressure were evaluated. Then the wastewater flux of RO membrane was compared with theoretical calculation using mass transfer models, and good consistency was observed. It was found that a high rejection rate more than 95% of metal ions and a low Chemical Oxygen Demand （COD） value of 10 mg·L^-1 in permeate could be achieved using the RO composite membrane, while the NF rejection of the salt could be up to 78.9% and the COD value in the permeate was 35 mg·L^-1. The results showed that the product water by both NF and RO desalination satisfied the State Reutilization Qualification, but NF would be more suitable for large-scale industrial practice, which offered significantly higher permeate flux at low operating pressure.

Inhibition of CaCO_3 Scaling in Reverse Osmosis System by Zinc Ion

Scaling of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane surface is one of the main problems in desalination proc- esses. To mitigate scales, organic anti-scalants are often used. If the dosages of anti-scalants are reduced, by using other much cheaper scale inhibitors, RO running cost will decrease greatly. The present paper investigated the inhi- bition of CaCO3 precipitation by zinc ions in RO system. The results show that the zinc ion concentration of 2mg?L-1 was able to exert a marked suppression effect on both bulk precipitation of CaCO3 and on membrane scaling on waters of moderate hardness.

Energy Recovery Device with a Fluid Switcher for Seawater Reverse Osmosis System

Energy recovery device （ERD） is an important part of the seawater reverse osmosis （SWRO） desalination system. There are principally two kinds of ERDs, the centrifugal type and the positive displacement （PD） type. The PD type is of extensive concern and is preferred in large-scale plants. In this article, an innovative fluid switcher was presented and a two-cylinder hydraulic energy recovery unit with a lab-scale fluid switcher was set up. Tap water was used as the working medium instead of the actual seawater and brine in SWRO desalination plants. Under steady state operating conditions, the experimental results were obtained on the variations of the pressure and flow rate to and from the energy recovery unit. The hydraulic recovery efficiency （En） of the energy recovery unit with the fluid switcher reached up to 76.83%.

Study of reverse osmosis membranes fouling by inorganic salts and colloidal particles during seawater desalination

Fouling phenomenon is considered among the major reasons that cause significant increase of operating cost of desalination plants equipped with reverse osmosis(RO)membranes.This phenomenon is studied in the present work in the case of RO polyamide aromatic membranes using model seawater containing inorganic salts and colloidal compounds.Different solubility conditions of CaCO3 and CaSO4 were applied to study RO performances with and without colloid presence.During experiments,the membrane permeate fluxes were continuously monitored.Moreover,studies of chemical composition,structure,and morphology of the materials deposited on the membrane surface were conducted using energy dispersive microanalysis(EDS)X-ray diffraction and scanning electronic microscopy(SEM).Results show that in conditions of calcium carbonate oversaturation there is a reduction in the permeate flow of 11.2%due to fouling of the membrane by the precipitation of this compound.While in the same conditions of calcium sulphate oversaturation the reduction of the flow is 5%,so we can conclude that in conditions of oversaturation of both salts,calcium carbonate produces a greater fouling of the membrane that in its view causes greater decrease in the flow of permeate.All this based on the results of the test with both salts in oversaturated conditions.Resulting in the formation of calcite and gypsum crystals onto the membranes as XRD analyses stated.Additional presence of colloidal silica in those conditions intensifies strongly the fouling,leading until to 24.1%of permeate flux decrease.

Substrate matters:The influences of substrate layers on the performances of thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes

Thin-film composite(TFC) reverse osmosis(RO) membranes are playing the dominating role in desalination.Tremendous efforts have been put in the studies on the polyamide selective layers. However, the effect of the substrate layers is far less concerned. In this review, we summarize the works that consider the impacts of the substrates, including pore sizes, surface hydrophilicity, on the processes of interfacial polymerization and consequently on the morphologies of the active layers and on final RO performances of the composite membranes. All the works indicate that the pore sizes and surface hydrophilicity of the substrate evidently influence the RO performances of the composite membranes. Unfortunately, we find that the observations and understandings on the substrate effect are frequently varied from case to case because of the lack of substrates with uniform pores and surface chemistries. We suggest using track-etched membranes or anodized alumina membranes having relatively uniform pores and functionalizable pore walls as model substrates to elucidate the substrate effect.Moreover, we argue that homoporous membranes derived from block copolymers have the potential to be used as substrates for the large-scale production of high-performances TFC RO membranes.

Recent advances in nanofiltration,reverse osmosis membranes and their applications in biomedical separation field

In the face of human society's great requirements for health industry,and the much stricter safety and quality standards in the biomedical industry,the demand for advanced membrane separation technologies continues to rapidly grow in the world.Nanofiltration(NF)and reverse osmosis(RO)as the highefficient,low energy consumption,and environmental friendly membrane separation techniques,show great promise in the application of biomedical separation field.The chemical compositions,microstructures and surface properties of NF/RO membranes determine the separation accuracy,efficiency and operation cost in their applications.Accordingly,recent studies have focused on tuning the structures and tailoring the performance of NF/RO membranes via the design and synthesis of various advanced membrane materials,and exploring universal and convenient membrane preparation strategies,with the objective of promoting the better and faster development of NF/RO membrane separation technology in the biomedical separation field.This paper reviews the recent studies on the NF/RO membranes constructed with various materials,including the polymeric materials,different dimensional inorganic/organic nanomaterials,porous polymeric materials and metal coordination polymers,etc.Moreover,the influence of membrane chemical compositions,interior microstructures,and surface characteristics on the separation performance of NF/RO membranes,are comprehensively discussed.Subsequently,the applications of NF/RO membranes in biomedical separation field are systematically reported.Finally,the perspective for future challenges of NF/RO membrane separation techniques in this field is discussed.

Investigation on removing recalcitrant toxic organic polluters in coking wastewater by forward osmosis

Investigation was made on the efficiency of two commercial membranes in removing via forward osmosis(FO)the low molecular weight organic compounds typical of coking wastewater. The membranes were supplied by Poten and HTI companies. The organics in the simulated coking water were indole and pyrridine. Under FO mode, the rejection to the organics by Poten membrane was around 50%, whereas that for HTI membrane was obviously higher, ranging from 65% to 74%. The response of the two membranes in terms of Water flux and reverse salt flux(RSF) towards changing feed/draw solution(DS) flow rates in FO mode showed similar tendency,but different degree. Generally, the flux in FO using HTI membranes was lower. For HTI membrane, FO operated with pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) mode was also performed and the overall rejection of the organics was slightly lower than that in FO mode. In the long term FO test within 15 days, both Poten and HTI membranes displayed flux reduction and rejection enhancement. But the variation with Poten membrane was much more obvious. Discussion was carried out about the reasons and the mechanisms behind the FO performance difference between two membranes and the variation in flux and rejection with operation conditions. Characterizations by SEM, FTIR, AFM, XRD and XPS were tried to support the proposed explanations.

Development and Extension of Seawater Desalination by Reverse Osmosis

Seawater desalination has been peoples fond dream since ancient times, the dream is now becoming a reality. This paper presents a brief development history of reverse osmosis. Much attention was paid to innovative development in membranes, modules, equipments and applied technology, including asymmetric and composite membranes, spiral-wound element and hollow fiber module, energy recovery equipments and different technological processes. The extension of reverse osmosis, such as desalination, pre-concentration, integrated processes and nanofiltration, is also briefly mentioned.

Spontaneous imbibition characteristics of shale oil reservoir under the influence of osmosis

The spontaneous imbibition(SI)process in shale oil reservoirs is not only infuenced by capillary force,but also by the osmotic pressure between the fracturing fuid and formation water in the nanopores media.In this study,experimental methods are used to investigate the mechanisms of osmosis in the SI,taking into account the presence of initial formation water in shale oil reservoirs.To investigate the efect of osmosis,SI experiments were performed on the fne-grained felsic shale of the Qikou sag of Dagang oilfeld.Low-feld NMR testers and high-precision electronic balances are utilized for the measuring of oil–water migration.The results show that,when Sw≠0,high-salinity fuid SI can be divided into four stages:initial imbibition stage,drainage stage,secondary imbibition stage and stationary stage;when Sw=0,there is no drainage stage of high-salinity fuid SI;when Sw≠0 or Sw=0,low-salinity fuid SI can be called the“osmosis-enhanced SI”;and we have found that“newly formed pores or microfractures”as well as reducing salinity can promote SI.This article presents a systematic study of SI of shale oil reservoirs under the infuence of osmosis,which provide useful information for reservoir numerical simulation and development program design.

Studies on Feasibility of Reverse Osmosis (Membrane) Technology for Treatment of Tannery Wastewater

Tanneries reusing wastewater by combination of conventional and advanced Reverse Osmosis (RO) treatment technologies were assessed for technical and economic viabilities. Conventional treatment methods such as neutralization, clari-flocculation and biological processes are followed to clean the effluents before feeding to RO membrane modules. The characteristics of untreated composite effluents such as pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and total chromium were in the range of 4.00-4.60, 680-3600 mg/L, 1698-7546 mg/L, 980-1480 mg/L, 4200-14500 mg/L, and 26.4-190 mg/L, respectively. Inorganic ions like Ca2+, Na+, Cl– and SO42– were found more in the wastewaters. Conventional treatments significantly removed the organic pollutants however failed to remove dissolved inorganic salts. Membrane technology removed the salts as well as remaining organic pollutants and the product water is reused in the process. The studied tanneries (5 numbers) have achieved 93-98%, 92-99% and 91-96% removal of TDS, sodium and chloride, respectively. Seventy to eighty five percentage of wastewater was recovered and recycled in the industrial processes. The rejects are subject to either solar evaporation system or Multiple Effect Evaporation (MEE) technology. The resulting salts are collected in polythene bags and disposed into scientifically managed secured land fill (SLF) site. The cost of wastewater treatment for operation and maintenances of RO including the pre-treatments (conventional methods) is INR 100-110 m-3.

A Combined Forward Osmosis and Membrane Distillation System for Sidestream Treatment

Separate treatment of high-nutrient sidestream is an efficient and cost effective way to decrease the loading on the main plant, resulting in lower effluent nutrient concentration. This study investigated the use of a combined forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD) system for the removal of nitrogen present in high concentration in sidestream from anaerobic digestion process. The combined system was able to achieve almost 100% rejection of solids and acetic acid, and more than 98% rejection of NH3-N from the sidestream. The high rejection of NH3-N was mainly achieved by the FO process. The solids in the feed solution contributed to fouling problem in both FO and MD, resulting in significant decline in flux. However, 76% or higher flux recovery was achieved for FO membrane by cleaning with tap water. We observed that flux recovery was due to removal of solids from the membrane surface by the cleaning process. FO membrane also demonstrated excellent performance for continuous operation when cleaned for 15 min in every 24 h interval. Overall, the combined FO-MD system was found to be an effective solution for treatment of nutrient rich sidestream.

Multi-functional forward osmosis draw solutes for seawater desalination

Forward osmosis(FO), as one of the emerging desalination technologies, has the potential to produce fresh water from a variety of water sources by utilizing the osmotic pressure gradient across a semi-permeable membrane.Draw solution, as an essential component of any FO process, can extract water molecules from seawater or wastewater. An ideal draw solution should meet three essential requirements, namely high osmotic pressure, low reverse flux, and facile regeneration mechanism. The selection of proper draw solutes is especially critical for an energy-efficient FO process since the energy consumption mostly arises from the separation or regeneration of the draw solution. Recently, we developed a few multi-functional FO draw solutes, mainly aiming to enhance the FO water flux and to explore facile re-concentration methods. This review summarizes these draw solutes,including Na^+_- functionalized carbon quantum dots, thermoresponsive copolymers, hydrophilic magnetic nanoparticles, and thermoresponsive magnetic nanoparticles.

Potential use of nanofiltration like-forward osmosis membranes for copper ion removal

The discharge of industrial effluent containing heavy metal ions would cause water pollution if such effluent is not properly treated.In this work,the performance of emerging nanofiltration(NF)like-forward osmosis(FO)membrane was evaluated for its efficiency to remove copper ion from water.Conventionally,copper ion is removed from aqueous solution via adsorption and/or ion-exchange method.The engineered osmosis method as proposed in this work considered four commercial NF membranes(i.e.,NF90,DK,NDX and PFO)where their separation performances were accessed using synthetic water sample containing 100 mg·L-1 copper ion under FO and pressure retarded osmosis(PRO)orientation.The findings indicated that all membranes could achieve almost complete removal of copper regardless of membrane orientation without applying external driving force.The high removal rates were in good agreement with the outcomes of the membranes tested under pressuredriven mode at 1 MPa.The use of appropriate salts as draw solutes enabled the NF membranes to be employed in engineered osmosis process,achieving a relatively low reverse solute flux.The findings showed that the best performing membrane is PFO membrane in which it achieved N 99.4%copper rejection with very minimum reverse solute flux of<1 g·m-2·h-1.

An agent-based simulation with NetLogo platform to evaluate forward osmosis process(PRO Mode)

Forward osmosis(FO), as an emerging technology, is influenced by different factors such as operating conditions,module characteristics, and membrane properties. The general aim of this study was to develop a suitable(flexible,comprehensive, and convenient to use) computational tool which is able to simulate osmosis through an asymmetric membrane oriented in pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) mode in a wide variety of scenarios. For this purpose, an agent-based model was created in NetLogo platform, which is an easy-to-use application environment with graphical visualization abilities and well suited for modeling a complex system evolving over time. The simulation results were validated with empirical data obtained from literature and a great agreement was observed. The effect of various parameters on process performance was investigated in terms of temperature,cross-flow velocity, length of the module, pure water permeability coefficient, and structural parameter of the membrane. Results demonstrated that the increase in all parameters, except structural parameter of the membrane and the length of module led to the increase of average water flux. Moreover, nine different draw solutes were selected in order to assess the influence of net bulk osmotic pressure difference between the draw solution(DS) and feed solution(FS)(known as the driving force of FO process) on water flux. Based on the findings of this paper, the performance of FO process(PRO mode) can be efficiently evaluated using the NetL ogo platform.

Osmotic concentration of succinic acid by forward osmosis:Influence of feed solution pH and evaluation of seawater as draw solution

In this study, we investigated the essential role of feed solution pH so as to gain insights into the transport mechanisms of succinic acid concentration by osmotically-driven forward osmosis （FO） process. FO performances including water flux and bidirectional transport of succinate and chloride anions were systematically examined using cellulose triacetate-based FO membrane. Additionally, real seawater was explored as draw solution. Experimental results revealed that the pH-dependent speciation of succinic acid can affect the FO performances. Ionization of succinic acid at higher solution pH enhanced the osmotic pressure of feed solution, thus leading to lower water flux performance. A strong effect was pointed out on the succinate rejection for which nearly 100% rejections were achieved at pH above its pKa2 value. The rejection of succinate increased in the following order of chemical form： C2H4C2O4H2 〈 C2H4C2OH- 〈 C2H4C2O24-. With real seawater as the draw solution, low to moderate water fluxes （〈4 L. m- 2. h- 1 ） were observed. The divalent succinate anion was highly retained in the feed side despite differences in the succinic acid feed concentration at pH of approximately 6.90.

A Pilot-scale Demonstration of Reverse Osmosis Unit for Treatment of Coal-bed Methane Co-produced Water and Its Modeling

This study presents the first demonstration project in China for treatment of coal-bed methane(CBM) co-produced water and recycling.The work aims to provide a research and innovation base for solving the pollution problem of CBM extraction water.The reverse osmosis(RO) unit is applied to the treatment of CBM co-produced water.The results indicate that system operation is stable,the removal efficiency of the total dissolved solids(TDS) is as high as 97.98%,and Fe,Mn,and F-are almost completely removed.There is no suspended solids(SS) detected in the treated water.Furthermore,a model for the RO membrane separation process is developed to describe the quantitative relationship between key physical quantities-membrane length,flow velocity,salt concentration,driving pressure and water recovery rate,and the water recovery restriction equation based on mass balance is developed.This model provides a theoretical support for the RO system design and optimization.The TDS in the CBM co-produced water are removed to meet the "drinking water standards" and "groundwater quality standards" of China and can be used as drinking water,irrigation water,and livestock watering.In addition,the cost for treatment of CBM co-produced water is assessed,and the RO technology is an efficient and cost-effective treatment method to remove pollutants.

An easily recoverable thermo-sensitive polyelectrolyte as draw agent for forward osmosis process

As a potential solution to the crises of energy and resources, forward osmosis(FO) has been limited by the development of draw agents. An ideal draw agent should be able to generate high osmotic pressure and can be easily recovered. In this study, a thermo-sensitive polyelectrolyte of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid)(PNA)is developed as an efficient draw agent, and two easy and simple methods are proposed to effectively recover the polyelectrolytes. After adjusting the pH value of polyelectrolyte solutions to around 6.0, the polyelectrolyte can generate relatively high osmotic pressure, and induce average water fluxes of 2.09 and 2.95 L·m^(-2)·h^(-1) during12 h FO processes when the polyelectrolyte concentrations are 0.20 and 0.38 g·ml^(-1) respectively. After acidifying and heating to 70 °C, the PNA-10 polyelectrolyte can aggregate together because of hydrophobic association and separate from water, so it can be easily recovered by either simple centrifugation or gravitational sedimentation. The recovery ratios of PNA-10 polyelectrolyte in both methods are as high as 89%, and the recovered polyelectrolytes can be reused with almost the same FO performance as fresh ones. The results in this study provide valuable guidance for designing efficient and easily recoverable draw agents for FO processes.

A Pilot-scale Study on Coal Gasification Wastewater Reclamation Using Pretreatment Alternatives Combined with Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis

Aims to investigate the performance of the pilot-scale reclamation plant for coal gasification wastewater( CGW) using ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis with appropriate pretreatment alternatives,different pre-treatment alternatives- coagulation,adsorption,and ozonation methods were employed to treat the secondary effluent of coal gasification wastewater( SECGW) in a pilot-scale pressurized membrane system. The performance was compared to choose the most suitable pre-treatment alternative for the SECGW reclamation.Ozone reaction achieved highest COD removal efficiency( 79.6%- 91.0%),resulting in the stable normalized parameters of the subsequent ultrafiltration and reverse osmoses. In contrast,the coagulation and adsorption processes achieved only 32. 8%- 45. 7% and 53. 1%- 64. 6% decreases in COD,respectively. The residual organic pollutants in the reverse osmosis feed water led to an increase in normalized pressure drop and a decrease in normalized permeability( or membrane transference coefficient). The hydrophobic fraction was the main constituent( approx. 70% of DOC) in pretreated SECGW, and the hydrophobic-neutral fraction contributed mostly to the UV absorbance( 53%). Fluorescence excitation emission matrices revealed that ozonation removed most of the hydrophobic and aromatic proteins such as tyrosine and tryptophan which dominated in raw wastewater. The recalcitrant compounds such as phenolic compounds, heterocyclic compounds,especially long-chain hydrocarbons,which were easily attached to the membrane surface and contributed to organic fouling,could be oxidized and mineralized by ozone. Among the three pretreatments,ozonation showed highest removal efficiencies of hydrophobic and aromatic proteins,therefore resulting in highest normalized permeability.