Sami Al-aibi

Evaluation of draw solution effectiveness in a forward osmosis process

AbstractThis work investigates the effectiveness of sodium chloride and sucrose binary draw solutions in a forward osmosis pilot plant unit with either deionised or salt water feeds. Specifically, the effects of draw solution concentration on water flux through the membrane, the overall water recovery and the specific energy consumption of the unit are considered. For both feed types, sodium chloride draw solution exhibited a relatively high effectiveness in terms of all the measured performance indicators. Further, improvements in flux and recovery were also achievable with an increase in the sodium chloride (draw solution) concentration. In contrast, a sucrose-based draw solution led to a severe deterioration of the membrane performance that could not be effectively overcome by an increase in the draw solution concentration. This observation was attributed to the relatively large increase in the viscosity of the draw solution with increase in sucrose concentration. Interestingly, in the case of a salt w...

Removal Efficiency of Solid Particles from Raw Water Using AFM Grade-2 Media: Case Study

This paper describes the removal efficiency of solid particles from raw water by activated crushed glass media and compares its efficiency with sand media. In this study, activated crushed glass media (AFM) grade 2 and 14/25 sand media were experimentally tested using a filtration pilot plant unit in CORA laboratory. Turbidity level of the effluent used was around 70 NTU, which has been selected from turbidity profile test of Wey River (Guildford/UK) on March 2010. Although, both of these filter media were not identical in porosity and particle size distribution, the experimental results showed that AFM media garde-2 exhibited a high capability to remove solid particles from the raw water besides of it other advantages. Also, the capability of AFM for removing solid particles was slightly poorer than those of 14/25 sand media.

Efficiency of Organic Draw Solutions in a Forward Osmosis Process Using Nano-filtration Flat Sheet Membrane

The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of specific organic osmotic agents, namely, Sucrose draw solution and Glucose draw solution against deionized water in a Forward Osmosis (FO) process using NF flat sheet membrane. The key parameters affecting the FO process studied were: temperature, flow rates of osmotic agent and feed water, and concentration of osmotic agent. The experimental results showed that increasing the concentration of osmotic agents yield lower water flux, recovery percentage and permeability, along with an apparent increase in the specific energy consumption. Although the findings indicated superior performance of Glucose over Sucrose as a better osmotic agent, it has to be emphasized that both organics were ineffective draw solutions against deionized water for the Nano-filtration (TFC-SR2) membrane used in this study and the given operating parameters.