Aquaporin plays a promising role in fabricating high performance biomimetic forward osmosis (FO) membranes. However, aquaporin as a protein also has a risk of denaturation caused by various chemicals, resulting in a possible decay of membrane performance. The present study tested a novel aquaporin based biomimetic membrane in simulated membrane cleaning processes. The effects of cleaning agents on water flux and salt rejection were evaluated. The membrane showed a good resistance to the chemical agents. The water flux after chemical cleaning showed significant increases, particularly after cleaning with NaOCl and Alconox. Changes in the membrane structure and increased hydrophilicity in the surrounding areas of the aquaporin may be accountable for the increase in water permeability. The membrane shows stable salt rejection up to 99% after all cleaning agents were tested. A 15-day experiment with secondary wastewater effluent as the feed solution and seawater as the draw solution showed a stable flux and high salt rejection. The average rejection of the dissolved organic carbon from wastewater after the 15-day test was 90%. The results demonstrated that the aquaporin based biomimetic FO membrane exhibits chemical resistance for most agents used in membrane cleaning procedures, maintaining a stable flux and high salt rejection.

Forward osmosis (FO) is a novel membrane separation process that potentially can be used as an energy-saving alternative to conventional membrane processes. A hybrid sequential batch reactor (SBR)-FO process was explored. In this system, a plate and frame FO cell including two flat-sheet FO membranes was submerged in a bioreactor treating synthetic domestic wastewater. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal efficiency of the system was 98.55%. Total nitrogen removal was 62.4%, with nitrate, nitrite and ammonium removals of 58.4%, 96.2% and 88.4%, respectively. Phosphate removal was almost 100%. The 15-hour cycle average water flux of a virgin membrane with air scouring was 2.95L/m²·h^-1. Air scouring can help to remove loose foulants from the membrane active layer, thus helping to recover up to 89.5% of the original flux. Chemical cleaning of the fouled active layer of the FO membrane was not as effective as air scouring. Natural organic matter (NOM) characterization methods (liquid chromatography-organic carbon detection (LC-OCD) and 3-D fluorescence excitation emission matrix (FEEM)) show that the FO membrane has a very good performance in rejecting biopolymers, humics and building blocks, but a limited ability in rejecting low molecular weight neutrals. Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) and other biopolymers might be associated with fouling of the membrane on the support layer. A 1% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) cleaning solution was proved to be effective for removing the foulants from the support layer and recovering the original flux.