Forward Osmosis Technology and Its Application Progress

As a novel membrane treatment technology, forward osmosis (FO) has become a research hotspot in the field of membrane technology owing to its advantages such as low energy consumption and low pollution. Nevertheless, this technology still faces notable limitations, including lower water flux than reverse osmosis (RO), difficult regeneration of draw solutions, limited commercial membrane types, and unavoidable reverse solute flux, which restrict its large-scale industrial application. This paper reviews the characteristics of forward osmosis membranes, the classification of draw solutions, the characteristics of membrane fouling, as well as the applications and development trends of forward osmosis technology. Common FO membranes include cellulose acetate (CA) membranes, thin-film composite (TFC) membranes fabricated by interfacial polymerization, and aquaporin (AQP)-based biomimetic membranes. According to the types of draw solutes, draw solutions can be classified into gaseous solutions, organic compound solutions, inorganic compound solutions, magnetic nanoparticle-based draw solutions, polymer gel draw solutions, etc. Since FO is operated without external hydraulic pressure, it exhibits lighter membrane fouling compared with pressure-driven membrane separation technologies. FO membrane fouling can be mainly divided into four categories according to fouling types: inorganic fouling, organic fouling, colloidal fouling, and biofouling. FO technology has a wide range of applications and plays an important role in seawater desalination, pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) power generation, wastewater treatment and reuse, and the energy field. Notably, the reconcentration and regeneration of draw solutions remain major energy and economic limitations restricting the large-scale deployment of FO. As a promising treatment technology, with continuous technological advances in membrane materials and draw solutions, FO will play a significant role in the energy field, especially in lithium extraction from geothermal water, promoting the iteration of forward osmosis technology from a “water treatment technology” to a “core technology for energy and resource recovery”.