The research aims to apply the novel forward osmosis (FO) process to recover pure water
from contaminated water. Phenol was used as organic substance in the feed solution, while sodium
chloride salt was used as draw solution. Membranes used in the FO process is the cellulose
triacetate (CTA) and polyamide (thin film composite (TFC)) membrane. Reverse osmosis process
was used to treatment the draw solution, the exterior from the forward osmosis process. In the FO
process the active layer of the membrane faces the feed solution and the porous support layer faces
the draw solution and this will show the effect of dilutive internal concentration polarization and
concentrative external concentration polarization.
In the FO process was a run-time for five hours, and the concentration of phenol 100 and
1000 mg/l, and for the NaCl the concentration was 10000 and 30000 mg/l. It was found that
recovery percent increases with increasing time, while water flux through membrane decreases with
increasing time. Also, it was found that recovery and water flux increases with increasing draw
solution concentration, on the contrary, water flux and the percentage of recovery decreases with
increasing the concentration of phenol (feed solution). Increase in draw solute (NaCl) concentration
has more effect on the water flux in FO process compared with increase in the concentration of
phenol. Outlet phenol concentration increases with time, while the outlet salt concentration
decreases with increasing the time. The results showed that the cellulose triacetate membrane gave
the highest recovery ratio from the thin film composite membrane. The highest recovery was
reached in five hours is 51.33%, while using CTA membrane recovery rate increase, by 23%
compared with TFC membrane. The value of the resistance to solute diffusion within the membrane
porous support layer is 36.83 h/m. Reverse osmosis is perfect method for removal of dissolved salts
from water, thus its suitable process for reducing the content of NaCl in draw solution; therefore the
sodium chloride rejection percentage was 91.6 – 96 % for polyamide membrane (TFC). Within two
hours of work of the reverse osmosis system the recovery percentage of pure water is 58%.
