title: Integrated forward osmosis-membrane distillation process for human urine treatment.
abstract: This study demonstrated a forward osmosis-membrane distillation (FO-MD) hybrid system for real human urine treatment. A series of NaCl solutions at different concentrations were adopted for draw solutions in FO process, which were also the feed solutions of MD process. To establish a stable and continuous integrated FO-MD system, individual FO process with different NaCl concentrations and individual direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process with different feed temperatures were firstly investigated separately. Four stable equilibrium conditions were obtained from matching the water transfer rates of individual FO and MD processes. It was found that the integrated system is stable and sustainable when the water transfer rate of FO subsystem is equal to that of MD subsystem. The rejections to main contaminants in human urine were also investigated. Although individual FO process had relatively high rejection to Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Total Nitrogen (TN) and Ammonium Nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) in human urine, these contaminants could also accumulate in draw solution after long term performance. The MD process provided an effective rejection to contaminants in draw solution after FO process and the integrated system revealed nearly complete rejection to TOC, TN and NH4(+)-N. This work provided a potential treatment process for human urine in some fields such as water regeneration in space station and water or nutrient recovery from source-separated urine.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090 China.
authors.forename: Qianliang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090 China.
authors.forename: Caihong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090 China; Key Laboratory of Structures Dynamic Behavior and Control (Harbin Institute of Technology), Ministry of Education, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090 China.
authors.forename: Weichao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090 China.
authors.forename: Huiling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090 China. Electronic address: majun@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D057168:Distillation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009995:Osmosis; D014556:Urine / Q000737:chemistry*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Forward osmosis; Integrated system; Membrane distillation; Urine treatment; Water regeneration