Purifying fluoride-contaminated water by a novel forward osmosis design with enhanced flux under reduced concentration polarization

For purifying fluoride-contaminated water, a new forward osmosis scheme in horizontal flat-sheet cross flow module was designed and investigated. Effects of pressure, cross flow rate, draw solution and alignment of membrane module on separation and flux were studied. Concentration polarization and reverse salt diffusion got significantly reduced in the new hydrodynamic regime. This resulted in less membrane fouling, better solute separation and higher pure water flux than in a conventional module. The entire scheme was completed in two stages—an upstream forward osmosis for separating pure water from contaminated water and a downstream nanofiltration operation for continuous recovery and recycle of draw solute. Synchronization of these two stages of operation resulted in a continuous, steady-state process. From a set of commercial membranes, two polyamide composite membranes were screened out for the upstream and downstream filtrations. A 0.3-M NaCl solution was found to be the best one for forward osmosis draw solution. Potable water with less than 1 % residual fluoride could be produced at a high flux of 60–62 L m−2 h−1 whereas more than 99 % draw solute could be recovered and recycled in the downstream nanofiltration stage from where flux was 62–65 L m−2 h−1.