Functionalized thermo-responsive microgels for high performance forward osmosis desalination

WATER RESEARCH

卷:70

Article

Hartanto, Yusak¹  Yun, Seonho¹  Jin, Bo¹  Dai, Sheng¹ 

[1] Univ Adelaide, Sch Chem Engn, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

关键词: Microgels;    Forward osmosis;    Desalination;    Water flux;    Dewatering ability;    On-line conductivity;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.watres.2014.12.023

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels were recently proposed for energy-saving forward osmosis (FO) process. However, their low water flux and dewatering ability for reuse make them less attractive for industrial desalination process. In this work, the co-polymer microgels of N-isopropylacrylamide and acrylic acid with different mixing ratios were synthesized using surfactant-free emulsion polymerization to produce submicron-size hydrogels with high surface area and fast swelling-deswelling response. The microgels were employed as draw agents in a laboratory scale FO desalination system. The microgel-based FO process performed a high water flux up to 23.8 LMH and high water recovery ability of 72.4%. In addition, we explored a new conductivity measurement method to online analyze water flux of the FO system. This on-line conductivity analysis approach appeared to be an accurate and efficient method for evaluating microgel-based FO desalination performance. Our experimental data revealed that the stimuli-responsive microgel was an efficient draw agent for FO desalination. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free