Forward osmosis for industrial effluents treatment – sustainability considerations

• Published in: Separation and purification technology 2021-01, Vol.254, p.117568, Article 117568
• Main Authors: Mahto, Ashesh, Aruchamy, Kanakaraj, Meena, Ramavatar, Kamali, Mohammadreza, Nataraj, Sanna Kotrappanavar, Aminabhavi, Tejraj M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Draw solution; Forward Osmosis; Recovery; Recycling; Sustainability, Wastewater Treatment
• ISSN: 1383-5866; 1873-3794
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2020.117568

[Display omitted] •FO has better performance than other pressure-driven processes for treating contaminated wastewaters.•FO is suitable to recovery value-added products from industrial wastewater.•Comparatively lower fouling than RO makes FO sustainable for high fouling feed waters.•Standalone FO is beneficial as draw solution recovery is not required.•Hybridizing FO with RO, NF, MD, MBR, proved better sustainable than standalone process. Access to clean water resources has become a global challenge in recent times, especially in developing countries, where huge amounts of highly polluted industrial and municipal effluents are produced and discharged into the receiving environments. Applications of membrane technologies to deal with effluents from various origins have recently received a great deal of attention due to their inherent advantages compared to other physico-chemical methods developed so far. Forward osmosis (FO) is among one of the efficient membrane-based processes adopted by wastewater treatment facilities, with various configurations currently being transferred from laboratory and pilot-scales to large-scale applications. Still, FO technologies are plagued with drawbacks such as fouling, internal concentration polarization (ICP), reverse solute flux and draw solution recovery, which invariably increases the cost of operation and restricts the feasibility for large-scale and long-term use because economic considerations are the most important sustainability criteria when selecting a wastewater treatment technique among the various alternatives. Several modifications have been introduced in recent years to overcome the existing limitations, such as incorporation of engineered nanomaterials onto the membrane surface to mitigate membrane fouling and to enhance their life-time, thereby minimizing the cleaning and (when necessary) replacement costs. Several FO based pre-treatment technologies have also been introduced for complex effluents treatment to minimize the operational costs arising from cleaning and replacement activities. Therefore, assessing the performance of such technologies according to sustainability indicators is the key to ensure long-term benefits from the application of FO technologies for the treatment of highly polluted effluents. In this review, treatment and water reclamation from industrial effluents using FO process and the current states of the standalone and hybrid technologies considering sustainability criteria are di