Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Reverse-Forward Osmosis (HRFO) Laboratory Model to Increase Production Efficiency of Desalination Process

Today, water desalination methods are of great importance in solving the freshwater crisis in the world, so that in recent years, the world's water desalination capacity has increased dramatically. Among them, the reverse osmosis membrane technology has been the most popular and the most commonly used. There are problems such as high energy consumption, high operating costs, and fouling in this method. The objective of this paper was to use reverse and forward osmosis membrane methods simultaneously in a hybrid reverse-forward osmosis setting, which enabled us to take advantage of the benefits of forward osmosis such as not being dependent on high hydraulic pressure, lower cost and less membrane fouling compared to reverse osmosis. Another objective of the study was to evaluate the permeate water production efficiency of desalination with this hybrid method. It is expected that using the hybrid method will reduce the required pressure for conducting reverse osmosis process to achieve a specified permeate flux, because it reduces cost and energy. An HRFO laboratory pilot with a capacity of 50 m3/day was designed and set up in the Hydraulic Lab of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz for running hybrid experiments. The design of the pilot was such that it could operate in both reverse osmosis and HRFO. HRFO experiments were carried out at pressures of 4.5 to 10.5 bar for Ahvaz urban water as feed solution, as well as NaCl as draw solution with a concentration of 2000 to 10000 mg/L via the experimental HRFO plant. It was found that adding the forward osmosis to reverse osmosis at the best situation (lowest pressure and highest concentration of draw solution) can increase the permeate water production efficiency of desalination by 55.12%. The best hybridization degree of these two methods was determined to be 64.5% for reverse osmosis and 35.5% for forward osmosis.