RT Journal Article T1 Recycled reverse osmosis membranes for forward osmosis technology A1 Contreras Martínez, Jorge A1 García Payo, M. Carmen A1 Arribas, Paula A1 Rodríguez Sáez, Laura A1 Lejarazu Larrañaga, Amaia A1 García Calvo, Eloy A1 Khayet Souhaimi, Mohamed AB An alternative use of end-of-life reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is proposed for forward osmosis (FO) application as recycled FO (RFO) membranes and transformed recycled FO (TRFO) membranes. Different passive cleaning protocols in pilot plant and laboratory scale were followed using sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) at different concentrations and exposure time. The RFO with the best performance was selected for its transformation by interfacial polymerization (IP) technique to improve further the FO performance. Both the morphological structure and transport properties of the RFO and TRFO membranes were studied by means of different characterization techniques. Although the RFO membranes are suitable for FO, the TRFO membranes are more competitive. The highest FO water permeate fluxes (12.21 kg/m2·h and 15.12 kg/m2·h) were obtained for the membrane recycled applying the highest NaClO exposure dose applied in pilot plant (106 ppm·h) followed by IP of a thin polyamide layer. These permeate fluxes were better or at least comparable to commercial membranes used under the same FO conditions. The results indicated that it is possible to use discarded RO membranes in FO technology for wastewater treatment after adequate treatment procedures extending their lifetime and contributing to a circular economy and sustainability in membrane science and related materials. PB Elsevier SN 0011-9164 YR 2021 FD 2021-12-01 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/115342 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/115342 LA eng NO Contreras-Martínez, J., García-Payo, C., Arribas, P., Rodríguez-Sáez, L., Lejarazu-Larrañaga, A., García-Calvo, E., & Khayet, M. (2021). Recycled reverse osmosis membranes for forward osmosis technology. Desalination, 519, 115312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2021.115312 NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España) NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) DS Docta Complutense RD 8 abr 2025