TY - JOUR
T1 - Seawater desalination for agriculture by integrated forward and reverse osmosis
T2 - Improved product water quality for potentially less energy
AU - Shaffer, Devin L.
AU - Yip, Ngai Yin
AU - Gilron, Jack
AU - Elimelech, Menachem
N1 - Funding Information:
Ngai Yin Yip was supported by the Graduate Fellowship Program of the Environment and Water Industrial Development Council of Singapore. Professor Menachem Elimelech acknowledges the support of the World Class University (WCU) Program (Case III) through the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ( R33-10046 ).
PY - 2012/10/1
Y1 - 2012/10/1
N2 - Seawater desalination for agricultural irrigation will be an important contributor to satisfying growing water demands in water scarce regions. Irrigated agriculture for food production drives global water demands, which are expected to increase while available supplies are further diminished. Implementation of reverse osmosis, the current leading technology for seawater desalination, has been limited in part because of high costs and energy consumption. Because of stringent boron and chloride standards for agricultural irrigation water, desalination for agriculture is more energy intensive than desalination for potable use, and additional post-treatment, such as a second pass reverse osmosis process, is required. In this perspective, we introduce the concept of an integrated forward osmosis and reverse osmosis process for seawater desalination. Process modeling results indicate that the integrated process can achieve boron and chloride water quality requirements for agricultural irrigation while consuming less energy than a conventional two-pass reverse osmosis process. The challenges to further development of an integrated forward and reverse osmosis desalination process and its potential benefits beyond energy savings are discussed.
AB - Seawater desalination for agricultural irrigation will be an important contributor to satisfying growing water demands in water scarce regions. Irrigated agriculture for food production drives global water demands, which are expected to increase while available supplies are further diminished. Implementation of reverse osmosis, the current leading technology for seawater desalination, has been limited in part because of high costs and energy consumption. Because of stringent boron and chloride standards for agricultural irrigation water, desalination for agriculture is more energy intensive than desalination for potable use, and additional post-treatment, such as a second pass reverse osmosis process, is required. In this perspective, we introduce the concept of an integrated forward osmosis and reverse osmosis process for seawater desalination. Process modeling results indicate that the integrated process can achieve boron and chloride water quality requirements for agricultural irrigation while consuming less energy than a conventional two-pass reverse osmosis process. The challenges to further development of an integrated forward and reverse osmosis desalination process and its potential benefits beyond energy savings are discussed.
KW - Agriculture
KW - Boron
KW - Energy
KW - Forward osmosis
KW - Integrated process
KW - Seawater desalination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864746606&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2012.05.016
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2012.05.016
M3 - Comment/debate
AN - SCOPUS:84864746606
VL - 415-416
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
SN - 0376-7388
ER -