Self-regulating behavior of hybrid membrane systems as demonstrated in an element-scale forward osmosis-reverse osmosis hybrid system

Hybrid membrane systems can be difficult to design due to the requisite flow rate matching between up- and downstream unit operations. In this work, we use a forward osmosis-reverse osmosis (FO-RO) hybrid system to demonstrate how some membrane systems can exhibit self-regulating behavior due to osm...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Noah Ferguson, Maqsud Chowdhury, Colin Fitzsimonds, Nicole Beauregard, Mayur Ostwal, Marianne Pemberton, Edward Wazer, Caylin Cyr, Ranjan Srivastava, Jeffrey R. McCutcheon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-12-01
Series:Journal of Membrane Science Letters
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277242122500011X
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Summary:Hybrid membrane systems can be difficult to design due to the requisite flow rate matching between up- and downstream unit operations. In this work, we use a forward osmosis-reverse osmosis (FO-RO) hybrid system to demonstrate how some membrane systems can exhibit self-regulating behavior due to osmotic coupling. This can reduce the need for complex control systems for flow balancing. We show this behavior using a module-scale test bed that can mimic the behavior of larger scale operations. The system shows permeate flow rate near-convergence between the FO and RO modules after startup or when perturbed by a change in RO module pressure. The behavior of this hybrid system demonstrates that some membrane operations can exploit osmotic interdependence, rather than expensive control systems, to achieve steady state operation.
ISSN:2772-4212