Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Enabling Potable Reuse Of Wastewater Using Forward Osmosis: A Sustainable And Affordable Alternative To Reverse Osmosis
EPA Grant Number: R834872Title: Enabling Potable Reuse Of Wastewater Using Forward Osmosis: A Sustainable And Affordable Alternative To Reverse Osmosis
Investigators: McCutcheon, Jeffrey R
Institution: University of Connecticut
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: June 1, 2011 through May 31, 2016
Project Amount: $300,000
RFA: Advancing Public Health Protection through Water Infrastructure Sustainability (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Drinking Water , Water
Objective:
This project aims to evaluate the promise of forward osmosis (FO) as a technology to enable direct potable reuse of water. FO is an emerging membrane technology platform that offers a low cost alternative to reverse osmosis (RO) as a means of recapturing wastewater for direct potable reuse. The barriers to direct potable reuse are great, mostly stemming from the guaranteed removal of contaminants that can cause harm to humans even at low levels when exposure is chronic. Some of these contaminants are not removed effectively using membrane processes because of their chemistry. The goal of this project is to develop new membranes that function in FO and test those membranes for removal of various contaminants.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
This project entailed a series of parallel projects that focused on membrane design. During the project, three membrane platforms were developed:
- Nanofiber Supported thin film composite (TFC) membranes – These membranes used electrospinning to make high porosity substrates to support a polyamide layer formed through in situ polymerization commonly used in RO membranes.The high porosity and tunable properties lessened the severity of internal concentration polarization that commonly hinders FO performance.
- Modified RO membranes for FO – Using polydopamine, we could hydrophilized RO membrane support layers to improve mass transport during osmotic flow.
- Commercial microfiltration membrane supported TFC membranes for FO – partnering with 3M, we used both off the shelf and tailored nylon 6,6 microfiltration membranes as supports for TFC membranes. Their hydrophilicity and regular structure enabled easy fabrication and testing of the membranes.
These membranes were designed and challenged in different ways to elucidate critical structure-performance relationships that were at the time unknown in FO. This grant was instrumental in that materials development and without it, we would have been unable to publish and present our work as much as we did.
In addition to these platforms, we also continued to test commercial membranes as they emerged into the marketplace. We would publish our results as soon as possible to provide the community with insight into the cutting edge technology coming out of industry.
The general finding is that each membrane platform was successful as an osmotic membrane. Breaking down each in particular:
Nanofiber Supported TFC Membrane
Strengths: The nanofiber TFC exhibited the highest flux performance of all of the membranes we fabricated and tested. These membranes easily outperformed available commercial membranes on the market at the time of the work that was published
Weaknesses: These membranes were relatively weak and difficult to handle. Not only did this make them questionable as commercializable membranes, but also it made them easy to damage.
Modified RO Membrane
Strengths: The membrane exhibited the strength and quality of a commercially made membrane. The membrane was available in large quantities and always had the same performance and properties.
Weaknesses: The membranes, not being designed for FO, exhibited the lowest flux of any membrane we tested. Also, the modification was impossible without physical removal of the polyester backing layer that is common with all RO membranes.
Nylon 6,6 Microfiltration Membrane Supported TFC
Strengths: Off-the-shelf membranes from 3M were available in large quantities and exhibited the constant and regular properties of a commercially produced membrane. This made forming the TFC simpler and produced higher yields of membranes. The formed membranes also exhibited excellent permselectivity.
Weaknesses: We were limited to off the shelf membranes until later in the project when 3M helped to make tailored supporting membranes for the TFCs.
These strengths and weaknesses were discussed at length in our 11 papers published during the grant. These papers have also been heavily cited by others in the field who have also discussed these benefits and drawbacks to certain membrane platforms.
One thing that we were unable to complete were any tests on actual wastewater. Our membrane development work was going so well and leading to publications that it took on a life of its own. We anticipate that we would be able to do work with actual wastewater with additional time and resources, especially now that we have had the opportunity to fully vet these different membrane platforms.
Conclusions:
The development of membranes for FO has been a critical need to the field since its beginning back in the mid 2000s. High selectivity membranes that can exhibit high productivity simply did not exist in 2010. Since 2011 when this project started, we have been able to broadly develop the TFC approach to making FO membranes which involves the formation of a selective, but fragile, barrier layer onto a porous mechanical support. These membranes have been made for reverse osmosis for decades, but had not made their mark in FO at the beginning of this work.<
We have used this support to develop three TFC membrane platforms based on conventional technology (RO membranes and commercial microfiltration membranes) as well as more novel approaches (electrospun nanofibers). Our papers have demonstrated not only the efficacy of all of these approaches, along with their drawbacks, but they have also provided key information to the FO community as it adopts new technology and membrane designs to address inherent shortcomings and challenges associated with osmotic processes.
Since the start of this project, FO has become a commercial success in niche areas. Oasys water has sold FO systems in China to treat flue gas desulfurization blowdown. Porifera has emerged and demonstrated its own brand of FO technology. Modern water operates a desalination plant in Oman. FO has come into its own in the last 5 years. This EPA project enabled substantial movement forward on next generation membrane designs that could make their way into the commercial space more rapidly than one might anticipate. While this work did not directly lead to a commercial product, a joint patent was filed with 3M, and our industrial interactions, and some of the work, suggest that commercialization of some of these membrane technologies is not outside the realm of possibility.
Journal Articles on this Report : 11 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 82 publications | 14 publications in selected types | All 12 journal articles |
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Type | Citation | ||
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Arena JT, Manickam SS, Reimund K, Freeman B, McCutcheon JR. Solute and water transport in forward osmosis using polydopamine modified thin film composite membranes. Desalination 2014;343:8-16. |
R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Bui N-N, Lind ML, Hoek EMV, McCutcheon JR. Electrospun supported thin film composite membranes for engineered osmosis. Journal of Membrane Science 2011;385-386:10-19. |
R834872 (2011) R834872 (2012) R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Bui N-N, McCutcheon JR. Hydrophilic nanofibers as new supports for thin film composite membranes for engineered osmosis. Environmental Science & Technology 2013;47(3):1761-1769. |
R834872 (2012) R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Huang L, Bui N-N, Manickam SS, McCutcheon JR. Controlling electrospun nanofiber morphology and mechanical properties using humidity. Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics 2011;49(24):1734-1744. |
R834872 (2011) R834872 (2012) R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Huang L, Manickam SS, McCutcheon JR. Increasing strength of electrospun nanofiber membranes for water filtration using solvent vapor. Journal of Membrane Science 2013;436:213-220. |
R834872 (2012) R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Huang L, Bui N-N, Meyering MT, Hamlin TJ, McCutcheon JR. Novel hydrophilic nylon 6,6 microfiltration membrane supported thin film composite membranes for engineered osmosis. Journal of Membrane Science 2013;437:141-149. |
R834872 (2012) R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Huang L, Arena JT, Manickam SS, Jiang X, Willis BG, McCutcheon JR. Improved mechanical properties and hydrophilicity of electrospun nanofiber membranes for filtration applications by dopamine modification. Journal of Membrane Science 2014;460:241-249. |
R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Huang L, McCutcheon JR. Hydrophilic nylon 6,6 nanofibers supported membranes for engineered osmosis. Journal of Membrane Science 2014;457:162-169. |
R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Huang L, Arena JT, McCutcheon JR. Surface modified PVDF nanofiber supported thin film composite membrane. Journal of Membrane Science 2016;499:352-360. |
R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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McCutcheon JR, Wang R. Osmotic processes for a sustainable 21st century—guest editorial. Desalination 2013:312:1. |
R834872 (2012) R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Ren J, McCutcheon JR. A new commercial thin film composite membrane for forward osmosis. Desalination 2014;343:187-193. |
R834872 (2013) R834872 (2014) R834872 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
Forward osmosis, reverse osmosis, engineered osmosis, membrane, thin film composite, nanofiber, electrospinning, wastewaterProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- 2014 Progress Report
- 2013 Progress Report
- 2012 Progress Report
- 2011 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
12 journal articles for this project