Forward osmosis as a pre-treatment for treating coal seam gas associated water: Flux and fouling behaviour

Youngpil Chun, Sung Jo Kim, Graeme J. Millar, Dennis Mulcahy, In S. Kim, Linda Zou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, a bench scale forward osmosis (FO) process was operated using two commonly available FO membranes in different orientations in order to examine the removal of foulants in the coal seam gas (CSG) associated water, the water flux and fouling behaviours of the process were also investigated. After 48 h of fouling simulation experiment, the water flux declined by approximately 55 and 35% of its initial level in the TFC-PRO and CTA-PRO modes (support layer facing the feed), respectively, while the flux decline in the TFC-FO and CTA-FO modes (active layer facing the feed) was insignificant. The flux decline in PRO modes was caused by the compounding effects of internal concentration polarisation and membrane fouling. However, the declined flux was completely recovered to its initial level following the hydraulic cleaning using deionised water. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) and major inorganic scalants (Ca, Mg and silica) in the CSG feed were effectively removed by using the FO process. The results of this study suggest that the FO process shows promising potential to be employed as an effective pre-treatment for membrane purification of CSG associated water.

Original languageBritish English
Pages (from-to)144-152
Number of pages9
JournalDesalination
Volume403
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2017

Keywords

  • Coal seam gas associated water
  • Flux behaviour
  • Forward osmosis
  • Foulant rejection
  • Pre-treatment

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