MEMBRANE FABRICATION AND MODIFICATION OF ENGINEERED OSMOSIS PROCESSES FOR WATER REUSE AND OSMOTIC ENERGY GENERATION

Abstract

For the last decade, engineered osmosis, inclusive of forward osmosis (FO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), have received global attention as emerging technologies for clean water and renewable osmotic energy production, respectively. The lack of suitable membranes, however, hinders the development and commercialization of these two technologies. Thus, the objectives of this dissertation were to develop fabrication and modification methods for preparing FO and PRO membranes which have the desirable performance. Meanwhile, the properties of the selective layer were explored as an inspiration for further membrane design and modification. In addition, the use of engineered osmosis for several water reuse applications have been investigated as well.