Forward osmosis (FO) has emerged as one of the most promising technologies for seawater desalination. Despite the progress in membrane technology, draw solutions are still limited in terms of its reusability thereby hampering its economic viability. Hydrophilic ILs can be easily dissolved in water to constitute a DS. ILs are environmentally benign due to their high thermal stability and negligible vapor pressure. Hydrophilic ILs can be easily dissolved in water to constitute a DS. ILs are environmentally benign due to their high thermal stability and negligible vapor pressure. This work was supported by NRF funded by the Korea government funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2016R1A2B1009221 and 2017R1A2B2002109) and Ministry of Education (2009-0093816 and 22A20130012051(BK21Plus)).

Forward osmosis (FO) is osmotically driven membrane processes and emerging as viable methods for producing fresh water from saline water or wastewater. The FO process is a promising and emerging low energy desalination technology and has been investigated for a wide range of applications including desalination, wastewater treatment, reverse osmosis concentrate treatment, food processing, emergency nutritious drinks, pharmaceutical industries, etc. In particular, although FO membranes have been available for over 40 years, there is still room to improve the water flux and reverse salt flux. Therefore, this presentation will initially probe various opportunities to extend potential commercialization of FO into new niches and applications, identifying key technology constraints. Then our FO membranes developed will be presented.

Membrane fabrication is a critical area that hampers forward osmosis (FO) technology from industrialization. Herein, electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofiber (NF) was used as a support layer for thin film composite (TFC) FO membrane. The PVA NF was incorporated with sulfonated graphene oxide (sGO). The oxygenous-rich sGO enhanced the hydrophilicity and mechanical strength of PVA NF as revealed by contact angle and tensile strength measurements, and pure water flux. On this support, the active polyamide layer was formed through interfacial polymerization. Meanwhile, FO performance of sGO/PVA TFC membrane is currently being evaluated. This work was supported by NRF of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2016R1A2B1009221 and 2017R1A2B2002109) and Ministry of Education (2009-0093816 and 22A20130012051 (BK21Plus)).

For the reclamation of HEP (1-hydroxyethylpiperazine) and MDG (methyl diglycol) from waste photoresist stripper, lab-scale experiments with a packed bed vacuum column were carried out. Purity of recovered solution mixture of HEP and MDG was measured to be 99.3% and recovery yield was to be 65%. Those results confirm that some organic solvents reclaimed from waste PR stripper satisfies the product specification required for the formulation of photoresist stripper.