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pp.737-744
The investigation of effects on fouling propensity with various viscosity of feed solutions would be better understanding for forward osmosis (FO) performance since the fouling propensity was directly influenced with solution viscosity. Therefore, this study was focused on the FO fouling with model foultants (humic acid, alginate) by altering solution viscosity with change of ionic strength (I.S) and Ca2+ concentrations. In the comparison between humic acid and alginate, as expected, the alginate generally caused more severe fouling (almost 35.8 % of flux reduction) based on the solution characteristics (high viscosity) and fouling patterns (coil and gel layer). However, interesting point to note is that the fouling propensity of alginate was more severe even though it was applied with low viscosity of feed conditions (I.S = 20 mM, Ca2+ = 1 mM). This might be due to that crossed linked gel layer of alginate on the FO membrane surface could be best formed in the condition of Ca2+ presence and higher I.S, and that is more dominant to fouling propensity than the low viscosity of feed solutions.
