food processing industry
                     
Forward Osmosis 
New Technologies Report -
Date:13th  April , 2023 
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 INTRODUCTION 
• Forward osmosis (FO) is a technique that uses an osmotic pressure-driven semi-permeable 
membrane to separate water from dissolved compounds. 
Figure 1: A schematic diagram of forward osmosis [2 CONTD...
]
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• Osmotic pressure propels water over the membrane while maintaining the dissolved solutes on the 
other side. Water spontaneously leaves the treated liquid across a semi-permeable membrane during 
forward osmosis. 
• The water transfer in a forward osmosis system is driven by the potential chemical gradient between 
the draw solution on one side of the membrane and the liquid feed on the other [1]. 
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Principle
• In contrast to many other membrane processes, such as reverse osmosis (RO), which uses supplied 
hydraulic pressure, forward osmosis (FO) is a process that is driven by differences in osmotic 
pressure between a feed and draw solution. 
Forward Osmosis process
• The FO process needs a semi-permeable membrane to divide the feed solution, which has a low 
osmotic pressure, and the draw solution, which is very concentrated. Since the primary operating 
expenditure for systems like RO is the energy required to pump solutions at high pressure, it is 
typically predicted that FO will have substantially lower energy expenses. 
• The draw solution is gradually diluted while the feed solution's concentration increases due to water 
permeability across the membrane [3].
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Advantages:
• Low energy usage per recovered unit of water.
• Low costs for operation and maintenance. 
• Less fouling and scaling ability to handle complex wastewater.
Disadvantages:
• The amount of water wasted by the process
• It can dewater feeds loaded with fibres, sugars, and salts and has no osmotic pressure limitations [3].
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Application
The latest natural concentrates: 
• Compared to fresh juices, most thermally evaporated fruit 
juice concentrates undergo processing steps that cause them 
to lose colour, flavour, and nutrient components. Forwards 
osmosis preserves the colour, nutrients, and sensory 
character of fruit juices while dehydrating them. One possible 
use for these concentrates is to swap out sugar additives for 
forwards osmosis dewatered juice, which provides vitamins, 
antioxidants, fibre, and other minerals. Before spray-drying to 
create powdered goods, forward osmosis concentrates may 
also be employed to offer high-grade concentrated food. 
Figure 2: Forward Osmosis can be used to 
concentrate brine [4]
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Savings on transportation: 
• Concentrates let firms save on logistics expenses, including storage, shipping, and others. 
Concentrates from forward osmosis techniques provide for shipping cost reductions without 
sacrificing product quality. 
• To cut shipping expenses, tropical drinks like coconut water and mango, pineapple, or passion fruit 
juice can be concentrated five to ten times before delivery. 
• Three billion tonnes less water would be delivered annually if coconut water were shipped, 
dewatered and rehydrated at the point of sale, saving energy.
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Dewatering of Water-Alcohol Mixtures:
• Additionally, forward osmosis may function with combinations of water-soluble solvents, such as 
water and alcohol. 
• For instance, forward osmosis can eliminate water from alcohol while retaining or lowering the end 
product's alcohol level-for example, concentrated wine.
• The wine concentration procedure may concentrate the alcohol in proportion to other ingredients, 
lower the alcohol content, and rehydrate the wine [1]. 
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REFERENCES
• https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/10/10/284 
• https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/4/404 
• https://www.ift.org/news-and-publications/food-technology-magazine/issues/2017/march/columns/processing-forward
-osmosis-and-applications-in-industry 
• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/High-level-view-of-a-forward-osmosis-process-which-relies-on-two-primary-syste
ms-1_fig2_301537115 
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THANK YOU 
M1.  20%
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