The role of osmotic agent in water flux enhancement during osmotic membrane distillation (OMD) for treatment of highly saline brines

Brine concentration is of critical importance in achieving zero liquid discharge in modern industrial processes. The effect of osmotic agent (OA) on the system performance in the treatment of different concentrations of brine using osmotic membrane distillation (OMD) was investigated. Significant improvement in water flux for concentrating the hypersaline brine was achieved compared to conventional membrane distillation processes. By altering the hydrodynamic conditions and using different combinations of feed streams and osmotic agents, a mathematical approach was applied, for the first time, to reveal the contribution of temperature and concentration polarization on flux enhancement in treating highly saline brines. This improvement was found to be caused mainly by the temperature polarization on the OA side of membrane, with less contribution from the decrease in vapor pressure of the bulk of the OA. This work illustrates that OMD is a promising process for efficient concentration of highly saline streams such as those found in the chlor-alkali industry. During the concentration of the spent brine from the electrolyte cell (NaCl concentration from 180 g/L to 310 g/L), OMD was shown to be the more cost and energy efficient compared to conventional MD processes. •The effect of osmotic agent on the performance in treatment of brine using OMD was investigated.•Water flux of OMD for concentrating hypersaline brines was significantly higher than MD.•Mathmatical models were applied to reveal the effect of temperature and concentration polarization on permeate flux.•OMD is more cost and energy efficient compared to conventional MD processes.