Recycled reverse osmosis membranes for forward osmosis technology

An alternative use of end-of-life reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is proposed for forward osmosis (FO) application as recycled FO (RFO) membranes and transformed recycled FO (TRFO) membranes. Different passive cleaning protocols in pilot plant and laboratory scale were followed using sodium hypochlor...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Contreras Martínez, Jorge, García Payo, M. Carmen, Arribas, Paula, Rodríguez Sáez, Laura, Lejarazu Larrañaga, Amaia, García Calvo, Eloy, Khayet Souhaimi, Mohamed
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/115342
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/115342
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:628
620.1
Discarded reverse osmosis modules
Recycled membranes
Forward osmosis
Interfacial polymerization
Wastewater
Física de materiales
3312 Tecnología de Materiales
Descripción
Sumario:An alternative use of end-of-life reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is proposed for forward osmosis (FO) application as recycled FO (RFO) membranes and transformed recycled FO (TRFO) membranes. Different passive cleaning protocols in pilot plant and laboratory scale were followed using sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) at different concentrations and exposure time. The RFO with the best performance was selected for its transformation by interfacial polymerization (IP) technique to improve further the FO performance. Both the morphological structure and transport properties of the RFO and TRFO membranes were studied by means of different characterization techniques. Although the RFO membranes are suitable for FO, the TRFO membranes are more competitive. The highest FO water permeate fluxes (12.21 kg/m2·h and 15.12 kg/m2·h) were obtained for the membrane recycled applying the highest NaClO exposure dose applied in pilot plant (106 ppm·h) followed by IP of a thin polyamide layer. These permeate fluxes were better or at least comparable to commercial membranes used under the same FO conditions. The results indicated that it is possible to use discarded RO membranes in FO technology for wastewater treatment after adequate treatment procedures extending their lifetime and contributing to a circular economy and sustainability in membrane science and related materials.