Porifera Technology Featured in World's Largest Osmosis-based Desalination Plant
The Californer/10056478

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - Californer -- The world's largest forward and reverse osmosis hybrid facility featuring Porifera technology was revealed in November at the International Forward Osmosis Summit (IFOS) in Yeosu, Jellanam-do, South Korea.

The demonstration plant was a coordinated pilot project made possible by a consortium of industry and academic leaders and support from the Korean Ministry of the Environment.

The plant uses a combination of forward and reverse osmosis technologies to purify recycled industrial water and seawater to produce 1000 cubic meters of clean drinking water per day.

Dr. Ji-Hee Han of the Forward and Reverse Osmosis Hybrid Desalination Research Center (FOHC) said, "This technology can provide drinking water at about 25% lower electricity use compared to the standard seawater desalination process that uses microfiltration and seawater reverse osmosis."

In this energy-saving system, 2000 cubic meters per day of MF pretreated secondary effluent is first purified through forward osmosis using the chemical energy stored in seawater.  In this process, seawater is diluted from 34,000 mg/L to between 10,000 and 13,000 mg/L, depending on operating conditions. The diluted seawater is then treated by SWRO to produce 1000 cubic meters per day of high quality RO permeate. This combined process uses 25% less energy per cubic meter of permeate (including all pumping & pretreatment) than a standard MF+SWRO system of the same permeate capacity.

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The system is currently being operated in this energy-saving mode, but could also be operated to generate approximately 150% more clean water using the same amount of energy as MF+SWRO.

Porifera membranes were selected as the highest efficiency forward osmosis membranes that enabled the system to run under the most stable and economic operating conditions. "We evaluated many Forward Osmosis technologies. Porifera's customizable modules attain the target recovery and energy reduction goals we needed for a successful project," said Dr. Joon Young Choi Technology Director of the project's engineering contractor, Hyorim Industries.

"We are proud and honored that our membranes were thoroughly researched, tested, and ultimately chosen for this world-class project," said Porifera CEO and Founder, Olgica Bakajin. "The opportunity to participate in this project is an important step in commercialization of forward osmosis.  We look forward to working with Hyorim Industries to implement this process around the world."

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About Porifera

Porifera is a San Leandro, California-based company which manufactures proprietary forward osmosis membranes and provides process solutions to a variety of industries. Porifera's innovative forward osmosis solutions enable industries to efficiently remove water and retain only the most valuable components of their products. This unique technology facilitates the reduction of water waste, improvements to water reuse, and more efficient processing solutions to create better products using less energy. For more information, visit www.porifera.com.