The development of membrane technology requires spacers that can significantly enhance the mass-transfer rate while avoiding a severe pressure drop across the membrane module. A potential solution to this challenge is to introduce some flexible and dynamic structures into the spacer mesh. The current work was motivated to explore a conceptual design of spacers with hairy structures. The hairy structures were simulated using highly flexible nylon fibers that were fixed on a well-designed framework. The effects of fiber asymmetry and spacing on the vibrations were discussed in terms of the observations via a high speed camera. A variety of spacer prototypes were employed in a forward osmosis process to examine the performance of the hairy structures. The experimental results indicate that fiber vibrations could have a great impact on the mass transfer in the vicinity of the membrane surface and enhance the filtration flux (up to 2 ~20%). This fundamental study not only provides insight into the mechanisms underlying the complex fiber-flow interactions but also charts the direction for future hairy spacer design.

Nanofiltration (NF)-like membranes have shown potential for implementing forward osmosis (FO) for resource recovery. Despite the popular use of poly­(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) as a polycation in the layer-by-layer (LbL) coating of NF-like membranes, it remained ambiguous whether substantial changes could result from the minor structural difference in polyamine when employing polyvinylamine (PVAm) as the polycation. This study systematically assessed the filtration capability of the NF-like membranes with varying combinations of the PAH- and PVAm-containing bilayers in an FO process. The FO experiments revealed that the dominance of PVAm-containing bilayers in the upper part of the active layer could result in decreases in both the water permeability and the rejection of divalent salts. Subsequent fouling tests demonstrated that the membrane coated solely with PVAm-containing bilayers (i.e., the VVV membrane) exhibited the fastest flux decline in the fouling tests with sodium alginate (SA), whereas the fouling layer could be more easily removed by the crossflow. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) characterization indicated that the bridging effect of divalent cations could promote the aggregation of SA to form a particulate layer more susceptible to the shear effect. All the results shed light on the improvement of NF-like FO by regulating the formation of the active layer via the LbL assembly.