School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology, Sydney, Post Box 129, Broadway, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia.
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology, Sydney, Post Box 129, Broadway, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia.
Water Res. 2018 Nov 15;145:429-441. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2018.08.050. Epub 2018 Aug 28.
Low energy consumption and less fouling propensity of forward osmosis (FO) processes have been attractive as a promising water filtration technology. The performance of this process is however significantly influenced by its operating conditions. Moreover, these operating parameters have both favourable and adverse effects on its performance. Therefore, it is very important to optimize its performance for efficient and economic operation. This study aims to develop a software to analyze a full-scale FO system for optimum performance. A comprehensive theoretical framework was developed to estimate the performance of FO system. Analysis results were compared with the experimental results to validate the models. About 5% deviation of simulation results and the experimental findings shows a very good agreement between them. A novel optimization algorithm was then developed to estimate the minimum required draw solution (DS) inlet flowrate and the number of elements in a pressure vessel to attain the design objectives (i.e. desired final DS concentration and recovery rate at a specific feed solution (FS) flowrate). A detailed parametric study was also conducted to determine the optimum operating conditions for different objectives. It showed that for a specific design objective, higher recovery rate can be achieved by increasing the DS flowrate and number of elements in a pressure vessel. In contrast, lower final concentration can be obtained by lowering the DS flowrate and increasing the number of elements. Finally, a MATLAB based software with graphical user interface was developed to make the analysis process easier and efficient.
低能耗和低结垢倾向的正向渗透（FO）过程作为一种有前途的水过滤技术具有吸引力。然而，该过程的性能受到其操作条件的显著影响。此外，这些操作参数对其性能既有有利影响，也有不利影响。因此，优化其性能以实现高效和经济的运行非常重要。本研究旨在开发一种软件，以分析全规模 FO 系统以实现最佳性能。建立了一个全面的理论框架来估计 FO 系统的性能。分析结果与实验结果进行了比较，以验证模型。模拟结果与实验结果的偏差约为 5%，表明它们之间具有非常好的一致性。然后开发了一种新颖的优化算法来估计达到设计目标（即在特定进料溶液（FS）流量下所需的最终 DS 浓度和回收率）所需的最小所需汲取液（DS）入口流量和压力容器中的元件数。还进行了详细的参数研究，以确定不同目标的最佳操作条件。结果表明，对于特定的设计目标，通过增加 DS 流量和压力容器中的元件数可以实现更高的回收率。相反，通过降低 DS 流量和增加元件数可以获得更低的最终浓度。最后，开发了一个基于 MATLAB 的带有图形用户界面的软件，以使分析过程更加容易和高效。
