Flexible reverse osmosis (FLERO) is a newly proposed technology for purifying and saving water simultaneously by recycling brine to inlet water. However, it is unknown if and how much FLERO may compromise micropollutant treatment efficiency. Hence, this study examined FLERO in removing twenty disinfection byproducts (DBPs) from simulated water under a constant 80% water recovery condition. The results achieved ≥ 80.8% removals for most of DBPs while varying ionic strength, methanol content, and water matrix affected only small DBPs. From chemical structure perspective, the removals of DBPs were ranked as tetra- ≥ tri- ≥ di- ≥ mono- DBPs for compounds containing identical functional groups (FGs) and halogen types, iodinated ≥ bromated ≥ chlorinated DBPs for compounds with identical FG and halogenation degrees, and HAAs ≥ HALs ≈ HMs for compounds with identical halogenation types and degrees. From chemical property viewpoint, the rejections of DBPs were modeled well (R² = 0.76) by a quantitative structure-activity relationship model that incorporates four parameters (i.e., molecular volume, octanol-water partitioning coefficient, steric and electronic effects). From membrane-pollutant interaction standpoint, we for the first time revealed membrane trapping/sorption as another important mechanism for DBPs removal besides previously-known mechanisms like size exclusion and electrostatic repulsion.

柔性反渗透（FLERO）是一项新提出的技术，可通过将盐水循环到进水同时净化和节约水。但是，未知和多少FLERO可能会损害微污染物的处理效率。因此，这项研究检查了FLERO在恒定80％的水回收条件下从模拟水中去除二十种消毒副产物（DBP）的方法。结果对大多数DBP而言，去除率均≥80.8％，而离子强度，甲醇含量和水基质的变化仅影响较小的DBP。从化学结构的角度来看，对于具有相同官能团（FG）和卤素类型的化合物，DBP的去除量为四-≥tri-≥di-≥mono-DBP，对于具有相同FG和卤化的化合物，碘化≥溴化≥氯化DBP度，对于卤代类型和程度相同的化合物，HAAs≥HAL≈HMs。从化学性质的观点来看，DBP的排斥反应建模良好（R² = 0.76）的定量结构-活性关系模型结合了四个参数（即分子体积，辛醇-水分配系数，空间效应和电子效应）。从膜与污染物的相互作用的角度来看，我们首次揭示了膜捕集/吸附是除DBPs去除机理之外的另一个重要机理，如大小排阻和静电排斥。