Authors: Sherub Phuntsho, Ho Kyong Shon, Seungkwan Hong and Sangyoup Lee
Presenter: Dr Ho Kyong Shon, Lecturer – University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
Presentation: Energy Sources, Use and Efficiency: Part I, Tuesday, September 6, 12.00-12.30 PM, Bellevue 2
Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging and a novel low energy technology for desalination particularly advantageous if the draw solution separation and recovery is not necessary. One such situation where FO can be suitably used is to desalinate water for irrigation, using fertiliser as draw agent where the desalinated water containing diluted draw solution can be directly applied for fertigation.
Monoammonium hydrogen phosphate (MAP) and diammonium hydrogen phosphate (DAP) are the important group of the most concentrated soluble fertiliser materials containing both N and P, essential fertiliser elements needed by the plants. We report here the comparative assessment of these two fertilisers for use as draw solution for FO desalination. The results indicate that both MAP and DAP can
be used as a draw solution for FO desalination and for direct fertigation although concentration polarisation significantly affected the water flux. MAP performed slightly better in terms of pure water flux however; the performance ratio of DAP was comparable to MAP when saline feed water was used. Furthermore, with significantly lower reverse solute flux than MAP, DAP was seen as a better draw solution candidate for desalination and fertigation.
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