@article{ajwr2013136,
author={{Qin, Jian-Jun and Danasamy, Gayathri and Lay, Winson C.L. and Kekre, Kiran A},
title={Challenges in Forward Osmosis of Seawater Using Ammonium Bicarbonate as Osmotic Agent},
journal={American Journal of Water Resources},
volume={1},
number={3},
pages={51--55},
year={2013},
url={http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajwr/1/3/6},
abstract={This study aimed at exploring whether product quality, membrane fouling and salt reverse flow would be challenges in forward osmosis<b> (</b>FO) of seawater using NH<SUB>4</SUB><SUB>3 </SUB>as an osmotic agent. Experiments were conducted with a lab scale FO system containing effective membrane area of 95 cm<SUP>2</SUP>. Synthetic seawater (SSW) with 3.5-7.0 mg/L boron and a real seawater (RSW) were used as feeds and 1.5-2.5 M NH<SUB>4</SUB><SUB>3</SUB> as draw solutions. The experimental operation could be stablized within 0.5 h. For the SSW, boron rejection ranged of 47-85% and increased with increasing water flux while boron in the permeate was greater than 0.8mg/L. Water flux with RSW was 3 times lower than that with SSW, indicating that there might be serious membrane fouling with RSW. It was surprisingly observed that non volatile organic in the FO permeate was 8-10 mg/L, which was from the draw solution although NH<SUB>4</SUB><SUB>3 </SUB>used was analytical grade. Additional water cost would be $0.4/m<SUP>3 </SUP>because of NH<SUB>4</SUB><SUB>3 </SUB>loss. It was concluded that product quality in terms of high TOC contaminant in NH<SUB>4</SUB><SUB>3 </SUB>and low boron removal, serious fouling with RSW and salt reverse flow could be challenges for the FO process using NH<SUB>4</SUB><SUB>3 </SUB>as osmotic agent for seawater desalination.},
doi={10.12691/ajwr-1-3-6}
publisher={Science and Education Publishing}
}