1. Evaluating Fertilizer-Drawn Forward Osmosis Performance in Treating Anaerobic Palm Oil Mill Effluent
- Author
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Nidal Hilal, Wei Lun Ang, Abdul Wahab Mohammad, Ruwaida Abdul Wahid, and Daniel Johnson
- Subjects
Fertigation ,Ammonium sulfate ,Forward osmosis ,Backwashing ,Filtration and Separation ,02 engineering and technology ,TP1-1185 ,010501 environmental sciences ,engineering.material ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Nutrient ,Chemical engineering ,Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) ,palm oil mill effluent ,fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Fouling ,draw solution ,Process Chemistry and Technology ,forward osmosis ,Chemical technology ,commercial fertilizer ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Pulp and paper industry ,chemistry ,Wastewater ,engineering ,Environmental science ,TP155-156 ,Fertilizer ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) is a potential alternative to recover and reuse water and nutrients from agricultural wastewater, such as palm oil mill effluent that consists of 95% water and is rich in nutrients. This study investigated the potential of commercial fertilizers as draw solution (DS) in FDFO to treat anaerobic palm oil mill effluent (An-POME). The process parameters affecting FO were studied and optimized, which were then applied to fertilizer selection based on FO performance and fouling propensity. Six commonly used fertilizers were screened and assessed in terms of pure water flux (Jw) and reverse salt flux (JS). Ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4), mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP), and potassium chloride (KCl) were further evaluated with An-POME. MAP showed the best performance against An-POME, with a high average water flux, low flux decline, the highest performance ratio (PR), and highest water recovery of 5.9% for a 4-h operation. In a 24-h fouling run, the average flux decline and water recovered were 84% and 15%, respectively. Both hydraulic flushing and osmotic backwashing cleaning were able to effectively restore the water flux. The results demonstrated that FDFO using commercial fertilizers has the potential for the treatment of An-POME for water recovery. Nevertheless, further investigation is needed to address challenges such as JS and the dilution factor of DS for direct use of fertigation. more...
- Published
- 2021