Design, Construction and Testing of a Food Safe Forward Osmosis Concentrating Pilot Scale Demonstration Platform

许多食品应用涉及浓缩过程，要求产品的总溶解固体含量非常高，在许多情况下，浓缩是使用极端热方法来蒸发水并浓缩固体。这些方法是能源和温室气体密集型的，昂贵的，并且可以破坏食品中的关键营养物质。开发一种新的低成本、低能耗的食品浓缩方法可以最大限度地减少或消除对热蒸发方法的需求，并为清洁水处理提供更可持续和环保的解决方案。Forward Water Technologies （FWT）由加拿大绿色中心（GreenCentre Canada）创立。绿色中心是一个化学和材料加速器，旨在帮助加拿大研究人员和企业家发现的新型清洁技术的商业开发。FWT的技术最初是在安大略省金斯顿的女王大学发现的，并由绿色中心进一步开发，并于2012年将其剥离出来商业化。该技术侧重于工业废水的处理，工业废水通常涉及过度运输、蒸发或焚烧的高成本处理要求，每立方米废物可高达750美元。FWT开发了一种正向渗透水处理工艺，大大降低了最终废物量，从而降低了总体处理成本，减少了能源需求，并将清洁水返回操作中重复使用或直接排放。与兰姆顿学院的兰姆顿水中心合作，Forward Water Technologies计划开发一个中试规模的示范平台，以测试正向渗透过程在食品应用中的适用性。

Many food applications involve concentration processes that require products with exceptionally high levels of total dissolved solids and in many cases, the concentration is performed using extreme thermal methods to evaporate the water and concentrate the solids. These methods are energy- and Greenhouse Gas-intensive, expensive, and can destroy key nutrients in the food product. Developing a new cost effective, low energy method of concentrating food-based products can minimize or eliminate the need for thermal evaporative methods and provide a more sustainable and environmentally conscious solution for clean water treatment.Forward Water Technologies (FWT) was founded by GreenCentre Canada, a chemistry and materials accelerator created to aid in the commercial development of new clean technologies discovered by researchers and entrepreneurs in Canada. FWT's technology was originally discovered at Queen's University in Kingston, ON and further developed by GreenCentre where it was spun-out for for-profit commercialization in 2012. The technology focuses on the treatment of industrial wastewater which typically involves high cost disposal requirements from excessive transportation, evaporation, or incineration which can reach upwards of $750/cubic meter of waste. FWT has developed a forward osmosis water treatment process to dramatically lower the final waste volumes which will subsequently lower overall treatment costs, reduce energy requirements, and return clean water for re-use in operations or direct discharge. In collaboration with Lambton College's Lambton Water Centre, Forward Water Technologies plans to develop a pilot scale demonstration platform to test the applicability of the forward osmosis process on food-based applications.