Agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater. Desalinated seawater is an important alternative water source for sustainable irrigation. However, some issues of the current desalination technology hinder its use for agriculture irrigation, including low boron removal and high energy consumption. This study systematically explored the feasibility of employing fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) as an alternative to 2nd pass reverse osmosis (RO) by considering the boron removal performance and specific energy consumption (SEC). Different operating conditions were investigated, such as the boron and NaCl concentrations in feed solution (FS), draw solution (DS) concentration, pH, the volume ratio of FS to DS, membrane orientation, flow rate, and operating temperature. The results indicated that a low boron concentration in FS and high DS pH (pH = 11.0) decreased the boron solute flux, and led to low final boron concentration in the DS. The other operating conditions had negligible influence on the final DS boron concentration. Also, a lower flow rate and higher specific water flux with certain permeate water volumes were conducive to reducing the SEC of the FDFO process. Overall, our study paves a new way of using FDFO in irrigation, which avoids the phytotoxicity and human health risk of boron. The results show the potential of FDFO as an alternative to 2nd pass RO for irrigation water production.

农业是淡水的最大消费国。淡化海水是可持续灌溉的重要替代水源。但是，当前脱盐技术的一些问题阻碍了其用于农业灌溉的应用，包括硼去除率低和能耗高。这项研究通过考虑除硼性能和比能耗（SEC），系统地探讨了使用化肥向前渗透（FDFO）替代第二遍反渗透（RO）的可行性。研究了不同的操作条件，例如进料溶液（FS）中硼和NaCl的浓度，汲取溶液（DS）的浓度，pH，FS与DS的体积比，膜取向，流速和操作温度。结果表明，FS中低的硼浓度和高DS pH（pH = 11.0）会降低硼溶质通量，并导致DS中最终硼浓度降低。其他操作条件对最终DS硼浓度的影响可忽略不计。而且，较低的流速和较高的比水通量以及一定的渗透水量也有利于降低FDFO工艺的SEC。总体而言，我们的研究为在灌溉中使用FDFO铺平了道路，避免了硼的植物毒性和人类健康风险。结果表明，FDFO可以替代第二次反渗透用于灌溉水生产。较低的流速和较高的比水通量以及一定的渗透水量有利于降低FDFO工艺的SEC。总体而言，我们的研究为在灌溉中使用FDFO铺平了道路，避免了硼的植物毒性和人类健康风险。结果表明，FDFO可以替代第二次反渗透用于灌溉水生产。较低的流速和较高的比水通量以及一定的渗透水量有利于降低FDFO工艺的SEC。总体而言，我们的研究为在灌溉中使用FDFO铺平了道路，避免了硼的植物毒性和人类健康风险。结果表明，FDFO可以替代第二次反渗透用于灌溉水生产。