TY - JOUR
T1 - Pilot-scale evaluation of FO-RO osmotic dilution process for treating wastewater from coal-fired power plant integrated with seawater desalination
AU - Choi, Byeong Gyu
AU - Zhan, Min
AU - Shin, Kyungyong
AU - Lee, Sanghak
AU - Hong, Seungkwan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant (code 17IFIP-B088091-04) from Industrial Facilities & Infrastructure Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - An osmotic dilution process of forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) was applied at pilot-scale to integrate wastewater treatment with seawater desalination in a coal-fired power plant. FO was osmotically driven by seawater used as cooling water. FO-treated wastewater was diluted with seawater and then further processed by RO. Seasonal variation in water flux, fouling behavior and reversibility, and energy consumption in both FO and RO were systematically evaluated during 5 months of pilot operation. The FO water flux, which declined due to the organic fouling induced by the wastewater from the coal-fired power plant, was readily recovered by physical cleaning. The integrated FO-RO dilution process was able to reduce the RO fouling potential through FO treatment of wastewater, significantly decreasing SDI value to 1.5 ± 0.1. This study also reported energy consumption data, to our knowledge for the first time, at pilot scale operation of FO-RO dilution process, and showed that total energy consumption for desalinating the diluted feed, including wastewater reclamation by FO, was 15% less than that of typical seawater desalination by RO. The results of this FO-RO pilot study demonstrated that sustainable FO-RO operation can be achieved in the treatment of power plant wastewater owing to easy fouling control, low energy consumption, and superior final water quality.
AB - An osmotic dilution process of forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) was applied at pilot-scale to integrate wastewater treatment with seawater desalination in a coal-fired power plant. FO was osmotically driven by seawater used as cooling water. FO-treated wastewater was diluted with seawater and then further processed by RO. Seasonal variation in water flux, fouling behavior and reversibility, and energy consumption in both FO and RO were systematically evaluated during 5 months of pilot operation. The FO water flux, which declined due to the organic fouling induced by the wastewater from the coal-fired power plant, was readily recovered by physical cleaning. The integrated FO-RO dilution process was able to reduce the RO fouling potential through FO treatment of wastewater, significantly decreasing SDI value to 1.5 ± 0.1. This study also reported energy consumption data, to our knowledge for the first time, at pilot scale operation of FO-RO dilution process, and showed that total energy consumption for desalinating the diluted feed, including wastewater reclamation by FO, was 15% less than that of typical seawater desalination by RO. The results of this FO-RO pilot study demonstrated that sustainable FO-RO operation can be achieved in the treatment of power plant wastewater owing to easy fouling control, low energy consumption, and superior final water quality.
KW - FO-RO osmotic dilution process
KW - Forward osmosis (FO) membrane
KW - Fouling reversibility
KW - Integration of wastewater reclamation and seawater desalination
KW - Specific energy consumption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021113779&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.036
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.036
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85021113779
VL - 540
SP - 78
EP - 87
JO - Jornal of Membrane Science
JF - Jornal of Membrane Science
SN - 0376-7388
ER -