Bringing forward osmosis closer to the market: novel membranes, module design and integrity monitoring

Forward Osmosis (FO) has received considerable attention in the past decade for its potential to
recover water from difficult to treat waste streams, or to concentrate valuable liquid streams.
However, breakthrough of FO is currently limited, due to a number of bottlenecks, which are
addressed in this project. These include: inefficient mass transfer near and inside the membrane,
membrane fouling and membrane integrity. These bottlenecks are in part related to FO membranes
and in part to module design.
In this project, we aim at improving mass transfer through the fabrication of corrugated and/or
vibrating membranes and through developing novel membrane active layer polymers with improved
permeability, selectivity and stability. We also aim at improving our theoretical understanding of
internal mass transfer in FO membranes, through the preparation of model membranes and mass
transport model development. Resulting membranes and modules will be tested in osmotic MBRs
and in algae harvesting. Finally, we aim at developing sensitive, online integrity monitoring tools,
allowing early detection of membrane damage.