Forward osmosis membrane technology for nutrient removal/recovery from wastewater: Recent advances, proposed designs, and future directions

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of nutrient removal/recovery has been applied as a sustainable solution to develop and design various modern wastewater treatment technologies for recovering nutrients from waste streams and is one of the high-priority research areas. Forward osmosis (FO) technology has received increasing interests as a potential low-fouling membrane process and a new approach to remove/recover nutrients from wastewater and sludge. The main objective of this review is to summarize the state of FO technology for nutrient removal/recovery from wastewater and sludge in order to identify areas of future improvements. In this study, nutrient removal processes, FO membrane technology, main factors affecting the FO process performance, the source water for nutrient recovery, the previous studies on the FO membrane process for nutrient removal/recovery from wastewater and sludge, membrane fouling, and recent advances in FO membranes for nutrient removal/recovery were briefly and critically reviewed. Then, the proposed possible designs to apply FO process in conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were theoretically presented. Finally, based on the gaps identified in the area, challenges ahead, future perspectives, and conclusions were discussed. Further investigations on the properties of FO associated with real wastewater, wastewater pre-treatment, the long-term low fouling operation, membrane cleaning strategies, water flux and the economic feasibility of the FO process are still desirable to apply FO technology for nutrient removal/recovery at full-scale (decentralized or centralized) in the future.

Keywords: Forward osmosis; Fouling; Membrane; Nutrient removal; Treatment; Water flux.