Separation Science and Technology, Vol.36, No.14, 3091-3103, 2001
Coupling reverse osmosis and osmotic dehydration: Further investigations
The recently proposed enricher-stripper configuration for concentrating sucrose solutions from 5 to 60 degrees Brix combining conventional reverse osmosis and osmotic dehydration is further analyzed. A graphical method is presented to estimate limits of operating pressure for the enricher and the stripper. Some area estimates are calculated with hydrophobic high-rejection reverse osmosis membranes in the enricher and high-rejection thin-film composite membranes in the stripper. An alternate configuration is also suggested for the interesting case in which a natural source of brine (seawater) is available.