The use of forward osmosis (FO) is of growing interest for water desalination, due to its potential energy savings. However, its industrial implementation is still limited by its actual performance limitation inwater permeation and reverse salt diffusion, due to membrane properties. Assisted forward osmosis (AFO) is a new concept, aiming at pressurising the feed solution to enhance water permea...

Knowing the overall solute flux and the partial fluxes expressed by every single transport layer, the membrane internal interface concentrations can separately be expressed. Both the overall transport coefcient and the driving force strongly depend, among others, on the value of the structural parameter and the water permeability. Study of the interface concentrations as ...

We present a novel hybrid membrane system that operates as a heat engine capable of utilizing low-grade thermal energy, which is not readily recoverable with existing technologies. The closed-loop system combines membrane distillation (MD), which generates concentrated and pure water streams by thermal separation, and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), which converts the energy of mixing to elect...