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Aedan Y, Altaee A, Zhou JL, Shon HK. Perfluorooctanoic acid-contaminated wastewater treatment by forward osmosis: Performance analysis. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 934:173368. [PMID: 38777064 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2024] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a persistent compound, raising considerable global apprehension due to its resistance to breakdown and detrimental impacts on human health and aquatic environments. Pressure-driven membrane technologies treating PFAS-contaminated water are expensive and prone to fouling. This study presented a parametric investigation of the effectiveness of cellulose triacetate membrane in the forward osmosis (FO) membrane for removing PFOA from an aqueous solution. The study examined the influence of membrane orientation modes, feed pH, draw solution composition and concentration, and PFOA concentration on the performance of FO. The experimental results demonstrated that PFOA rejection was 99 % with MgCl2 and slightly >98 % with NaCl draw solutions due to the mechanism of PFOA binding to the membrane surface through Mg2+ ions. This finding highlights the crucial role of the draw solution's composition in PFOA treatment. Laboratory results revealed that membrane rejection of PFOA was 99 % at neutral and acidic pH levels but decreased to 95 % in an alkaline solution at pH 9. The decrease in membrane rejection is attributed to the dissociation of the membrane's functional groups, consequently causing pore swelling. The results were confirmed by calculating the average pore radius of the CTA membrane, which increased from 27.94 nm at pH 5 to 30.70 nm at pH 9. Also, variations in the PFOA concentration from 5 to 100 mg/L did not significantly impact the membrane rejection, indicating the process's capability to handle a wide range of PFOA concentrations. When seawater was the draw solution, the FO membrane rejected 99 % of PFOA concentrations ranging from 5 mg/L to 100 mg/L. The CTA FO treating PFOA-contaminated wastewater from soil remediation achieved a 90 % recovery rate and water flux recovery of 96.5 % after cleaning with DI water at 40 °C, followed by osmotic backwash. The results suggest the potential of using abundant and cost-effective natural solutions in the FO process, all without evident membrane fouling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yahia Aedan
- Centre for Green Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Ali Altaee
- Centre for Green Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia.
| | - John L Zhou
- Centre for Green Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Ho Kyong Shon
- Centre for Green Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
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Abbas F, Al-Naemi S, Farooque AA, Phillips M, Rose DA. Understanding the phenomenon of saltwater intrusion sourced from desalination plants at coastal aquifers. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:109181-109197. [PMID: 37759059 PMCID: PMC10622366 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-29866-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2023] [Accepted: 09/09/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023]
Abstract
Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates rely on desalination to produce water for domestic use. Desalination produces brine that may intrude into the aquifers to pollute the fresh groundwater because of the concentration gradient and groundwater pumping. Modeling the trends of saltwater intrusion needs theoretical understanding and thorough logical experimentation. The objective of this exercise was to understand the phenomenon of saltwater intrusion using an existing set of data analyzed with the convective-diffusion equation and the two-region mobile-immobile solution model. The objective was achieved by optimizing non-measurable solute transport parameters from an existing set of data generated from a series of logical miscible displacements of potassium bromide through sepiolite minerals and curve-fitting simulations. Assumptions included that solute displacements through sepiolite porous media and the related simulations represented the phenomenon of saltwater intrusion under non-equilibrium conditions of porous media mimicking the aquifers. Miscible displacements of potassium bromide were observed from a column of 2.0-2.8 mm aggregates of sepiolite over 4 ranges of concentration and at 11 displacement speeds under saturated vertical flow deionized water and vice versa. Breakthrough curves of both bromide and potassium ions were analyzed by a curve-fitting technique to optimize transport parameters assuming solute movement was governed (i) by the convective-diffusion equation and (ii) the two-region mobile-immobile solution model. Column Peclet numbers from the two analyses were identical for potassium ions but those for bromide ions were c. 60% greater from the two-region model than from the convective-diffusion equation. For the two-region model, dispersion coefficients were well defined and remained unchanged from the convective-diffusion equation for potassium ions but decreased for bromide ions. Retardation factors for bromide ions were approximately the same, but those for potassium ions, though > 1, were poorly defined. In order to design mitigation strategies for avoiding groundwater contamination, this study's findings may help model groundwater pollution caused by the activities of desalination of seawater, which produces concentrated liquid that intrudes into the coastal aquifer through miscible displacement. However, robust saltwater intrusion models may be considered in future studies to confirm the results of the approach presented in this exercise. Field data on the groundwater contamination levels may be collected to compare with simulated trends drawn from the saltwater intrusion models and the curve-fitting technique used in this work. A comparison of the output from the two types of models may help determine the right option to understand the phenomena of saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers of various characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farhat Abbas
- College of Engineering and Technology, University of Doha for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 24449, Doha, Qatar.
| | - Salem Al-Naemi
- Office of the President, University of Doha for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 24449, Doha, Qatar
| | - Aitazaz A Farooque
- Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 4P3, Canada
- Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 4P3, Canada
| | - Michael Phillips
- Directorate of Applied Research, Innovation and Economic Development, University of Doha for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 24449, Doha, Qatar
| | - Derek A Rose
- School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
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Wang R, Li J, Xu C, Xu X, Tang F, Huang M. Integrating reverse osmosis and forward osmosis (RO-FO) for printing and dyeing wastewater treatment: impact of FO on water recovery. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:92495-92506. [PMID: 37491487 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-28853-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023]
Abstract
Reverse osmosis (RO) alone has low water recovery efficiency because of membrane fouling and limited operating pressure. In this study, a combined reverse osmosis-forward osmosis (RO-FO) process was used for the first time to improve the water recovery efficiency of secondary effluent in printing and dyeing wastewater. The effects of operating pressure and pH on water recovery and removal efficiency of RO-FO were investigated. The results showed that the optimum conditions were an operating pressure of 1.5 MPa and a feed solution pH of 9.0. Under optimal operating conditions, most of the organic and inorganic substances in the wastewater can be removed, and the rejection of total organic carbon (TOC), Sb, Ca, and K were 98.7, 99.3, 97.0, and 92.7%, respectively. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrices coupled with parallel factor (EEM-PARAFAC) analysis indicated that two components (tryptophan and tyrosine) in the influent were effectively rejected by the hybrid process. The maximum water recovery (Rw, max) could reach 95%, which was higher than the current single RO process (75%). This research provided a feasible strategy to effectively recover water from printing and dyeing wastewater.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruizhe Wang
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Jun Li
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Chao Xu
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Xiaoyang Xu
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Fengchen Tang
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Manhong Huang
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
- Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
- State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
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Bidaki A, Mousavi SM, Kiani S, Hosseini F. Preparation and characterization of forward osmosis cellulose acetate butyrate/
OH
‐functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube membrane for the concentration of bitter orange juice. J FOOD PROCESS ENG 2023. [DOI: 10.1111/jfpe.14271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Ali Bidaki
- Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad Iran
| | - Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi
- Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad Iran
| | - Shirin Kiani
- Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad Iran
| | - Fatemeh Hosseini
- Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad Iran
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Almoalimi K, Liu YQ. Fouling and cleaning of thin film composite forward osmosis membrane treating municipal wastewater for resource recovery. CHEMOSPHERE 2022; 288:132507. [PMID: 34627812 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2021] [Revised: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Concentrating municipal wastewater by forward osmosis (FO) membrane to a high level of water recovery rate to facilitate downstream resource recovery might cause more serious membrane fouling. This study investigated the concentration of synthetic and real municipal wastewater to 90% water recovery rate by hollow fiber and flat-sheet thin film composite (TFC) FO membranes and their associated membrane fouling and cleaning. Results show that the FO membrane had high rejection rates of COD, phosphate, Ca2+ and Mg2+ with concentration factors at around 8 when achieving a 90% water recovery rate, which facilitated downstream phosphate recovery by precipitation and energy recovery by anaerobic digestion. Ca2+ concentration in municipal wastewater at 61 mg/L was found to be the main factor to cause inorganic scaling, and the fouling caused by calcium precipitates was harder to be cleaned by physical cleaning compared with suspended solids (SS) such as cellulose particles. In addition, the TFC FO membrane for treating real sewage with SS is not applicable for the hollow fiber configuration used in this study due to lumen clogging, while the TFC flat sheet configuration was able to achieve a 90% water recovery rate. The use of a spacer in the flat sheet configuration improved the efficiency of the following physical cleaning by around 15% although it did not alleviate membrane fouling during the membrane filtration process. This study highlighted the importance of the chemistry of FS and DS and FO membrane configuration on membrane fouling particularly at high water recovery rates and the necessity of pre-treatment of municipal wastewater by removing suspended solids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khaled Almoalimi
- Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
| | - Yong-Qiang Liu
- Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
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Feasibility of Increasing Water Recovery of Inland Reverse Osmosis Systems and the Use of Reject Brine. ARABIAN JOURNAL FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s13369-021-06451-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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7
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Samieirad S, Mousavi SM, Saljoughi E. Novel chlorine resistant thin-film composite forward osmosis membrane: Preparation and performance evaluation in the regeneration of MEG aqueous solution. Chem Eng Res Des 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cherd.2021.11.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Panagopoulos A, Haralambous KJ. Environmental impacts of desalination and brine treatment - Challenges and mitigation measures. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2020; 161:111773. [PMID: 33128985 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2020] [Revised: 10/14/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Desalination is perceived as an effective and reliable process for obtaining freshwater from aqueous saline solutions such as brackish water, seawater and brine. This can be clarified by the fact that >300 million people worldwide rely on desalinated water for their daily needs. Although the desalination process offers many advantages, there are rising concerns about possible adverse environmental impacts. Generally, environmental impacts can be generated both in the construction and operation of desalination plants. A major issue of desalination is the co-produced waste called 'brine' or 'reject' which has a high salinity along with chemical residuals and is discharged into the marine environment. In addition to brine, other main issues are the high energy consumption of the desalination and brine treatment technologies as well as the air pollution due to emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and air pollutants. Other issues include entrainment and entrapment of marine species, and heavy use of chemicals. The purpose of this review is to analyze the potential impacts of desalination and brine treatment on the environment and suggest mitigation measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Argyris Panagopoulos
- School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780 Athens, Greece.
| | - Katherine-Joanne Haralambous
- School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780 Athens, Greece
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Panagopoulos A, Haralambous KJ, Loizidou M. Desalination brine disposal methods and treatment technologies - A review. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2019; 693:133545. [PMID: 31374511 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 130] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2019] [Revised: 07/19/2019] [Accepted: 07/21/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Brine, also known as concentrate, is the by-product of the desalination process that has an adverse impact on the environment due to its high salinity. Hence, viable and cost-effective brine management systems are needed to reduce environmental pollution. Currently, various disposal methods have been practiced, including surface water discharge, sewer discharge, deep-well injection, evaporation ponds and land application. However, these brine disposal methods are unsustainable and restricted by high capital costs and non-universal application. Nowadays, brine treatment is considered one of the most promising alternatives to brine disposal, since treatment results in the reduction of environmental pollution, minimization of waste volume and production of freshwater with high recovery. This review article evaluates current practices in brine management, including disposal methods and treatment technologies. Based upon the side-by-side comparison of technologies, a brine treatment technology framework is introduced to outline the Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) approach through high freshwater recovery and wastewater volume minimization. Furthermore, an overview of brine characteristics and its sources, as well as its negative impact on the environment is discussed. Finally, the paper highlights future research areas for brine treatment technologies aiming to enhance the effectiveness and viability of desalination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Argyris Panagopoulos
- Unit of Environmental Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780, Athens, Greece.
| | - Katherine-Joanne Haralambous
- Unit of Environmental Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780, Athens, Greece.
| | - Maria Loizidou
- Unit of Environmental Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780, Athens, Greece.
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