TY - JOUR
T1 - Forward osmosis desalination of brackish groundwater
T2 - Meeting water quality requirements for fertigation by integrating nanofiltration
AU - Phuntsho, Sherub
AU - Hong, Seungkwan
AU - Elimelech, Menachem
AU - Shon, Ho Kyong
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is supported by the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA) , which is funded by the Australian Government through Water for the Future initiative . This study was also partly supported by the World Class University program funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology through the National Research Foundation of Korea ( R33-10046 ). The authors acknowledge the support of the University of Technology Sydney on providing a UTS doctoral scholarship to this study’s first author. We are grateful to HTI, Inc. USA for supplying the FO membrane and Woongjin Chemical Korea for supplying the NF membrane.
PY - 2013/6/1
Y1 - 2013/6/1
N2 - The concept of fertiliser drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) desalination lies in the premise that fertilisers that serve as draw solutions (DS) add value to the FDFO product water for fertigation. However, because FDFO desalination is concentration based, the process cannot continue beyond the concentration equilibrium, one of the major limitations of the forward osmosis (FO) process. This results in final FDFO product water that, unless subjected to substantial dilution with fresh water, exceeds the acceptable nutrient concentrations for direct fertigation. In this study, nanofiltration (NF) has been assessed as an integrated process to FDFO desalination, either as a pre-treatment or post-treatment, to reduce the nutrient concentrations in the final product water and thereby allow direct use of the product water for fertigation without further dilution. NF as pre-treatment or post-treatment was found effective in reducing the nutrient concentrations using brackish groundwater (BGW) sources with relatively low total dissolved solid (TDS). However, when using higher TDS BGW sources, the product water still required further dilution or post-treatment before fertigation. NF as post-treatment was found to be more advantageous both in terms of reduced nutrient concentrations in the final product water and energy consumption.
AB - The concept of fertiliser drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) desalination lies in the premise that fertilisers that serve as draw solutions (DS) add value to the FDFO product water for fertigation. However, because FDFO desalination is concentration based, the process cannot continue beyond the concentration equilibrium, one of the major limitations of the forward osmosis (FO) process. This results in final FDFO product water that, unless subjected to substantial dilution with fresh water, exceeds the acceptable nutrient concentrations for direct fertigation. In this study, nanofiltration (NF) has been assessed as an integrated process to FDFO desalination, either as a pre-treatment or post-treatment, to reduce the nutrient concentrations in the final product water and thereby allow direct use of the product water for fertigation without further dilution. NF as pre-treatment or post-treatment was found effective in reducing the nutrient concentrations using brackish groundwater (BGW) sources with relatively low total dissolved solid (TDS). However, when using higher TDS BGW sources, the product water still required further dilution or post-treatment before fertigation. NF as post-treatment was found to be more advantageous both in terms of reduced nutrient concentrations in the final product water and energy consumption.
KW - Desalination
KW - Fertigation
KW - Fertiliser draw solution
KW - Forward osmosis
KW - Irrigation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875247584&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2013.02.022
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2013.02.022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84875247584
VL - 436
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - Jornal of Membrane Science
JF - Jornal of Membrane Science
SN - 0376-7388
ER -