On the potential of forward osmosis to energetically outperform reverse osmosis desalination
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FOforSeawater_JMS.pdf
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996.8 KB
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a2261cb9b5dbcb2af9a431bc9d2d97e3
Author(s)
McGovern, Ronan Killian
Lienhard, John H
Date Issued
June 2014
Journal
Journal of Membrane Science
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
McGovern, Ronan K., and John H. Lienhard V. “On the Potential of Forward Osmosis to Energetically Outperform Reverse Osmosis Desalination.” Journal of Membrane Science 469 (November 2014): 245–50.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We provide a comparison of the theoretical and actual energy requirements of forward osmosis and reverse osmosis seawater desalination. We argue that reverse osmosis is significantly more energy efficient and that forward osmosis research efforts would best be fully oriented towards alternate applications. The underlying reason for the inefficiency of forward osmosis is the draw-dilution step, which increases the theoretical and actual energy requirements for draw regeneration. As a consequence, for a forward osmosis technology to compete with reverse osmosis, the regeneration process must be significantly more efficient than reverse osmosis. However, even considering the optimisation of the draw solution and the benefits of reduced fouling during regeneration, the efficiency of an optimal draw regeneration process and of reverse osmosis are unlikely to differ significantly, meaning the energy efficiency of direct desalination with reverse osmosis is likely to be superior.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdul Latif Jameel World Water & Food Security Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2014.05.061
