Maximizing power density generation from seawater via pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) using commercially available membranes

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a green technology for harvesting Gibbs free energy from mixing solutions with different salinity gradients. Although lab-synthesized membranes showed high PRO performance, there is no available flat-sheet industrial-scale PRO membrane production. Most of the previous studies have focused on enhancing the power density of the PRO process by using a hypersaline draw solution that potentially causes severe internal and external concentration polarization (ICP and ECP) and limits achievable performance. Using the most accessible resources – seawater and commercially available membranes – can be a more practical way to develop a large-scale PRO plant. However, only a limited number of studies have evaluated the PRO performance under such realistic conditions. In our study, we compared the PRO performance of some commercial FO and RO membranes. We observed that, at an elevated feed velocity and temperature, the RO membrane had a significant enhanced water flux and power density. Due to turbulent flow at a high feed velocity and low viscosity at a high feed temperature (30 °C), the RO membrane was able to perform at low concertration polarization, hence maximum power density (5.3 W/m 2 ) could be obtained at half the osmotic pressure (15 bar). • Seawater and commercial RO and FO membranes were used for PRO • An elevated feed velocity and temperature resulted in high power density • Commercial RO membranes outperformed FO membranes in the PRO tests • 5.3 W/m 2 was achieved at 15 bar using a commercial RO membrane