Osmotic power is to produce electric power by using the chemical potential of two flows with the difference of salinity. Water permeates through a semipermeable membrane from a low concentration feed solution to a high concentration draw solution due to osmotic pressure. In a pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process, river water and wastewater are commonly used as low salinity feed solution, whereas seawater and brine from the SWRO plant are employed as draw solution. During the PRO process using wastewater effluent as feed solution, PRO membrane fouling is usually caused by the convective or diffusive transport of PRO which is the most critical step of PRO membrane in order to prevent membrane fouling. The main objective of this study is to assess the PRO membrane fouling reduction by pretreatment to remove organic matter using coagulation-UF membrane process. The experimental results obtained from the pretreatment test showed that the optimum ferric chloride and PAC dosage for removal of organic matter applied for the coagulation and adsorption process was 50 mg/L as FeCl3 (optimum pH 5.5). Coagulation-UF pretreatment process was higher removal efficiency of organic matter, as also resulting in the substantial improvement of water flux of PRO membrane.

물 오염, 지구 온난화, 기후 변화를 해결하기 위한 해결책이 시급한 상황에서, 담수의 수요를 충당하고 친환경 에너지를 생산하기 위한 방법으로 염도차를 이용한 압력지연삼투공정이 제시되고 있다. 압력지연삼투공정에 대한 꾸준한 연구에도 불구하고 최근 기술의 부족과 비싼 멤브레인의 가격 등의 한계로 인해 상용화가 되지 않고 있다. 한편 멤브레인은 압력 지연삼투공정과 염도차 발전 기술에 가장 중요한 구성품이다. 염도차 발전 기술에 사용되는 산화그래핀 멤브레인과 나노복합체 멤브레인의 기술 발전 연구가 지속되고 있다. 특히 낮은 온도의 폐기물 온도에서도 높은 에너지 효율 발전이 가능하도록 효율이 높은 멤브레인과 용매 및 용질에 대한 연구가 활발하다. 높은 투과도와 분리도를 가진 멤브레인, 특히 산화그래핀 멤브레인을 사용함으로써 농도 분극을 줄이고 전력 밀도를 높이는 연구들도 진행 중이다. 본 총설에서는 압력지연삼투 멤브레 인과 이를 통한 이론적 모델링, 그 외 기술을 통해 공정의 효율을 발전시키는 방법에 대해 논의한다.

In pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process, thin film composite (TFC) type membranes which can withstand high operating pressure are required. In this study, glass fibers (GF) are used as additive for mechanical strength enhancement of the support layer of TFC membranes. The support layers were fabricated by a phase inversion method by using the casting solution of blended GF (two different size of milled GF) with polyethersulfone (PES). The fabricated support layers were characterized by FE-SEM, FT-IR, contact angle goniometer, and universal testing machine. Lab-scale ultrafiltration experiment was carried out to measure their performance. As a result, the support layer with milled GF showed higher mechanical strength and water flux than the pure PES support layer, and the support layer with smaller size GF showed higher performance.

Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) is one of the promising candidates to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels by harnessing energy from the salinity gradient between high-saline and low-saline water. Based on recent advances in the membrane technologies, PRO has re-emerged as a potentially viable energy option. However, several challenges still remain before PRO can reach the commercial stage. Within this context, the objective of this research was to assess the techno-economic feasibility of PRO and PRO-hybrid processes. In particular, model-based performance analysis were conducted for the PRO-hybrid systems. In addition, the influence of colloidal fouling on the performance of PRO process was further investigated. It is expected that this research would help comprehensively understand the PRO-hybrid processes thereby activate further development.

In this study, we performed preparation and characterization of cellulosic hollow fiber membrane for the application of pressure retarded osmosis(PRO). We used high temperature nonsolvent induced phase separation (HT-NIPS) method to prepare robust hollow fiber membranes with cellulosic polymer blends at high concentration. Prepared hollow fiber membranes showed effective skin layer formation and sponge-like pore structure. In addition, the effects of pore-forming agents with different molecular weight and bore liquid composition on PRO performance were studied. The prepared membranes showed stable water flux and power density under the hydraulic pressure upto 10 bar. The highest power density of the membrane module was 5 W/m2 at 12 bar.

A salinity gradient power (SGP) system holds a great potential to generate continuous and clean electricity for 24 hours. Recently, incorporating with seawater reverse osmosis, SGP has been recognized as a alternative to solve the brine issue as well as energy saving. For commercialization, many scientists would sympathize that one of main hurdles is the limited performance of each membrane to extract the high power. In case of pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) closer to commercialization, the membrane must have the high water permeability and salt rejection. There are two type of modules; hollow fiber membranes and spiral type. Toray Chem. (Korea) already shows that 4th generation PRO module, but there is no still large size PRO hollow fiber modules. Therefore, this study presents 2 and 3 inch size of PRO hollow fiber membrane prepared by inside interfacial polymerization techniques.

압력지연삼투(pressure retarded osmosis; PRO) 공정은 염도차가 있는 두 종류의 물과 에너지 변환을 위한 멤브레인과 터빈을 이용하여 에너지를 생산하는 공정이다. PRO용 멤브레인의 전력밀도(W/m2)가 에너지 생산을 위해 가장 중요 하지만, PRO공정에는 멤브레인 외에도 여러 핵심 장비가 존재한다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 시스템의 경계를 펌프와 터빈 등을 포함하는 영역으로 확장하여 여러 영향 요소들에 따른 순 에너지의 크기를 비교 분석하였다. 결과에 따르면 멤 브레인을 통한 저염도수의 투과율, 저염도수의 유량 분율, 멤브레인 양측의 압력차, 멤브레인 모듈에서 저염도수 측의 압력강하, 모듈의 멤브레인 면적, 에너 지회수장치의 효율 등의 변화에 따라 PRO공정의 순 에너지가 크게 영향을 받았다.

The Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) is the next generation desalination technique and is considered as a eco-friendly energy. This was conducted to evaluate the effect of the temperature and pressure on the PRO performance. The flux of the permeation was measured under different operating conditions and estimated the power density. An improvement of PRO performance is depend on increasing solution temperature and optimum pressure. The effect of increasing feed solution temperature has stronger impact on the PRO performance comparing to the draw solution temperature. The reason of the results was due to the change of osmotic power, viscosity, water permeability and structure parameter(s).

Recently, reverse osmosis (RO) is the most common process for seawater desalination. A common problem in both RO and thermal processes is the high energy requirements for seawater desalination. The one energy saving method when utilizing the osmotic power is utilizing pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process. The PRO process can be used to operate hydro turbines for electrical power production or can be used directly to supplement the energy required for RO desalination system. This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of both single-stage PRO process and two-stage PRO process using RO concentrate for a draw solution and RO permeate for a feed solution. The major results, were found that increase of the draw and feed solution flowrate lead to increase of the production of power density and water permeate. Also, comparison between CDCF and CDDF configuration showed that the CDDF was better than CDCF for stable operation of PRO process. In addition, power density of two-stage PRO was lower than the one of single-stage. However, net power of two-stage PRO was higher than the one of single-stage PRO.

정삼투와 압력지연삼투 공정에서 용매의 투과율은 용매와 막이 접촉하는 방식에 의존한다. 각각의 공정에서 막의 활성층이 고농도 용매와 접촉하는 경우를 압력지연삼투 방식이라 하고, 고농도 용매가 막의 다공성 지지하층과 직면해 있는 경우를 정삼투 방식이라고 한다. 압력지연삼투 방식과 정삼투 방식은 각각 희석형 그리고 농축형의 내부농도 분극 현상을 유발하는데, 동일한 조작 조건에서 정삼투 방식보다 압력지연삼투 방식이 높은 투과율을 나타내는 현상이 실험적으로 관측되었다. 본고에서는 정삼투방식과 압력지연삼투 방식에서 발생하는 본질적인 투과율 불균형을 수학적 귀류법을 이용하여 증명하고, 물리적인 원인을 규명한다.

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process is one of membrane processes for harvesting renewable energy by using salinity difference between feed and draw solutions. Power is generated by permeation flux multiplied by hydraulic pressure in draw side. Membrane fouling phenomena in PRO process is presumed to be less sever, but it is inevitable. Membrane fouling in PRO process decreases water permeation through membrane, resulting in significant power production decline. This study intended to investigate the effect of hydraulic pressure in PRO process on alginate induced organic fouling as high and low hydraulic pressures (6.5 bar and 12 bar) were applied for 24 h under the same initial water flux. In addition, organic fouling in draw side from the presence of foulant (sodium alginate) in draw solution was examined. As major results, hydraulic pressure was found to be not a significant factor affecting in PRO organic fouling as long as the same initial water flux is maintained, inidicating that operating PRO process with high hydraulic pressure for efficient energy harvesting will not cause severe organic fouling. In addition, flux decline was negligible from the presence of organic foulant in draw side.