Role of pressure in organic fouling in forward osmosis and reverse osmosis

Fundamental understanding of membrane fouling in osmosis-driven membrane processes is important for further deployment of this emerging technology in desalination and wastewater reuse. In this study, we investigated the role of pressure in organic fouling and reversibility in forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) using alginate as a model organic foulant. Varying contributions of pressure (i.e., osmotic versus hydraulic) to the overall driving force were realized in forward osmosis (FO), pressure-assisted FO (PFO), and reverse osmosis (RO) experiments, while the same total driving force for water permeation was applied. Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used to examine alginate fouling layer structure in the hydrated state, which informed two key parameters: fouling layer thickness and foulant volume. We observed that the resulting fouling layer became increasingly more compact in the order of FO, PM, and RO experiments. Fouling layer reversibility followed the same trend, with the highest and lowest reversibility observed for the FO and RO fouling experiments, respectively. Possible mechanisms for fouling layer compaction in RO were discussed, including permeate drag force and foulant compressibility, as opposed to FO where only permeate drag force applies. Our findings suggest that pressure mechanistically alters the membrane fouling layer structure and fouling reversibility, leading to higher fouling reversibility in FO, where the driving force is osmotic pressure, than RO, where the driving force is hydraulic pressure. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.