Challenge Testing Osmotic Pre-treatment for Desalination

A desalination system comprising of two purification stages was developed: (1) a low-pressure forward osmosis pre-treatment stage that eliminates foulants from the feed water followed by (2) a high-pressure high-permeability reverse osmosis stage. The final prototype system demonstrated at the Port Hueneme facility desalinated a highly fouling challenge water (32,000 ppm, at 25?C) producing a 75gph product stream using 10 W/gph. Utilization of the forward osmosis process and Porifera?s forward osmosis membranes was critical to system?s high resistance to fouling. A novel pump with integrated energy recovery contributed to system?s low energy use.