A novel approach was designed to simultaneously apply low energy sludge dewatering and nutrient removal for activated sludge using forward osmosis (FO). In this study, the municipal wastewater sludge was spiked with different nutrient concentrations to evaluate FO dewatering performance. The results showed that sludge concentration reached 21,511 and 28,500 mg/L after 28 h from initial sludge concentration of 3000 and 8000 mg/L with flow rate of 150 mL/min. Moreover, nutrient and organic compounds in sludge solution were also successfully removed (around 96% of NH4+-N, 98% of PO43--P and 99% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC)) due to steric effect of FO membrane and multi barrier layer of sludge forming on membrane surface. Furthermore, the analysis from Scanning Electron Microscopy & Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) images recorded that FO membrane was fouled by cake layer of sludge in the active layer and NaCl in the support layer. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.