GreenPRO: A novel fertiliser-driven osmotic power generation process for fertigation

Abstract

This study introduces and describes GreenPRO, a novel concept involving fertiliserdriven osmotic energy generation via pressure retarded osmosis (PRO). The potential of GreenPRO was proposed for three objectives: (a) power generation, (b) water pressurization for fertiliser-based irrigation, and (c) water treatment, as a holistic water-energy-food nexus process. Three pure agricultural fertilisers and two commercial blended fertiliser solutions were used as the draw solution and irrigation water as feed to test this concept for power generation.Theoretical thermodynamic simulation of the maximum extractable Gibbs energy, was first performed. After which, a series of bench-scale experiments were conducted to obtain realistic extractable energy data. The results showed that concentrated fertilisers potentially have 11 times higher energy than seawater. Even after accounting for the irreversibility losses due to constant pressure operation, the investigated pure fertilisers were found to have between 2.5 -4.6 Wh/kg of energy. The outcomes from the flux and power density modelling were then validated with real experimental data. This study has successfully demonstrated that concentrated fertilisers can release a substantial amount of chemical potential energy when diluted for fertigation. This energy could be harnessed by transforming it into electric energy or pressure energy via PRO.

Effects of temperature, pH, feed, and fertilizer draw solution concentrations on the performance of forward osmosis process for textile wastewater treatment

“…Initially, it is necessary to know the extent of water which can permeate through the membrane from textile wastewater using fertilizers. Based on this, the quantity of treated water and the efficiency of the FDFO process can be determined (Volpin et al, 2018).…”

Melamine-based covalent organic framework-incorporated thin film nanocomposite membrane for enhanced osmotic power generation

“…The intrinsic membrane properties such as pure water permeability (PWP, A, L m -2 h -1 bar -1 ), solute permeability coefficient (B), and structure parameter (S) of the tested PRO membranes were determined by conducting reverse osmosis (RO) test by applying hydraulic pressure of 10 bar over an effective membrane area of 19.5 cm 2 , similar to a previous study by the authors [55]. Osmotic performance was tested using a bench-scale PRO system (Cheon Ha Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Republic of Korea) similar to a previous study [23].…”

“…Besides desalination, osmosis has also been engineered for generating osmotic power using the chemical potential difference by pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) [16][17][18][19]. The osmotic energy is generated due to the continuous pure water transport across the membrane thereby expanding the volume of the DS and when this happens in a closed restricted DS chamber, it can generate energy in the form of hydraulic pressure [16,[20][21][22][23].…”

Facile development of comprehensively fouling-resistant reduced polyketone-based thin film composite forward osmosis membrane for treatment of oily wastewater

“…This osmotically-driven membrane process does not require the application of hydraulic pressure, hereby offering the following advantages: sustainable water recovery potential, low fouling tendency, satisfactory contaminant rejection, and less energy consumption depending on chosen application [1]. FO can be applied for a number of applications, which include, but not limited to, desalination [2], resource recovery [3], juice dewatering [4], osmotic power generation [5,6], and wastewater treatment [7].…”