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Introduction of poly(acrylic acid) sodium into traditional draw solution to enhance its driving capacity in forward osmosis process

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Abstract

In this study, poly(acrylic acid) sodium (PAA-Na) salt was selected as representative polymer additive and the effect on forward osmosis (FO) performance of traditional draw solute NaCl was investigated. Results showed that PAA-Na increased water flux in both FO and PRO mode at 25 °C (up to 50%). Water flux and specific RSF firstly increased and then kept stable with the increasing concentration of PAA-Na additive. However, PAA-Na cannot enhance water permeation effectively at 35 and 45 °C. PAA-Na influenced FO performance by (1) increasing membrane hydrophilicity, which can increase water permeation, and was dominant at low temperature, and (2) causing pore-clogging, leading water flux decline, which was significant at high temperature. Furthermore, the influence of PAA-Na was compared with another polymer PAM and divalent salts MgCl2. The addition of PAM increased water flux slightly (lower than 25%), but increased RSF at the same time, due to the negative charge. Although MgCl2 decreased RSF and kept water flux fixed, its role was not obvious. In all, PAA-Na had advantages to improve FO performance.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because the test data is restricted to the relevant personnel of the project and is not allowed to be disclosed to the public, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 52100089), Environmental Pollution and Ecological Effects of Epidemic Control Drugs and Chemicals (no. 52091542), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2019M650713), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association (CAS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Water and Ecology, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Pin Zhao, Ruiping Liu, Huijuan Liu, Jianfeng Peng & Jiuhui Qu

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Anaerobic Biotechnology, School of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Jiangnan University, 214122, Wuxi, People’s Republic of China

    Pin Zhao

Authors
  1. Pin Zhao
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  2. Ruiping Liu
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  3. Huijuan Liu
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  4. Jianfeng Peng
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  5. Jiuhui Qu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Investigation, methodology, project administration, conceptualization, data curation, funding acquisition, methodology, and project administration were performed by Pin Zhao. Funding acquisition, project administration, and resources were provided by Ruiping Liu, Huijuan Liu, Jianfeng Peng, and Jiuhui Qu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Pin Zhao and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jianfeng Peng.

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Zhao, P., Liu, R., Liu, H. et al. Introduction of poly(acrylic acid) sodium into traditional draw solution to enhance its driving capacity in forward osmosis process. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 19224–19233 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23061-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23061-1

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