Thin Film Composite Membranes for Forward Osmosis

Clean water and energy are essential for public health and economic prosperity. Recent studies show that Engineered Osmosis (EO) may be a viable technology for desalination, water and wastewater treatment, and power generation. However, the absence of a membrane designed for such processes is a significant obstacle hindering further advancements of this technology. Conventional thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes yield very poor permeate water flux in EO due to their thick, dense and hydrophobic support layers resulting in internal concentration polarization (ICP). In this study, a new type of TFC EO membrane has been designed using a non-traditional membrane support materials.