A study of Forward Osmosis Performance and its Application on Sodium Succinate Feed Solution Using Ionic Salt Draw Solution

Abstract

Osmotically driven forward osmosis (FO) process is gaining increasing attentions among researchers. At present, the application of  FO technology in the downstream recovery for biorefinery products is not common. With the increasing demand of energy intensive  and economical technologies that are capable to concentrate dilute aqueous solutions, FO may find its potential in biorefinery  application. In this paper, the osmotic pressure of different types of draw solution compound (sodium chloride, sodium acetate,  sodium formate, ethylene glycol, and sodium lactate) was simulated. Experimental results were compared to the neutral compound  and inorganic salt compound obtained from the previous literature and the performance of permeation flux was evaluated. It is  desirable to carry out the FO process at higher draw solution concentration in order to achieve a fast water permeation process.  The draw solution dilution effect was more pronounced at high solution concentration as a result of greater water permeation  flux. Higher conductivities were obtained at increasing draw solution concentration indicating higher electrolyte concentration in  the feed solution due to the reverse solute permeation. The application of FO technology for concentrating sodium succinate feed  solution has shown encouraging results.