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.

建议将报废反渗透 (RO) 膜用作正向渗透 (FO) 应用，作为回收 FO (RFO) 膜和转化的回收 FO (TRFO) 膜。使用不同浓度和暴露时间的次氯酸钠 (NaClO) 遵循中试和实验室规模的不同被动清洁方案。选择性能最佳的 RFO 通过界面聚合 (IP) 技术对其进行转化，以进一步提高 FO 性能。通过不同的表征技术研究了 RFO 和 TRFO 膜的形态结构和传输特性。虽然 RFO 膜适用于 FO，但 TRFO 膜更具竞争力。最高的 FO 水渗透通量（12.21 kg/m ² ·h 和 15.12 kg/m² ·h) 获得的膜再循环应用最高 NaClO 暴露剂量 (10 ⁶  ppm·h)在试验工厂中应用，然后是一个薄聚酰胺层的 IP。这些渗透通量更好或至少与在相同 FO 条件下使用的商业膜相当。结果表明，在经过适当的处理程序后，可以在 FO 技术中使用废弃的 RO 膜进行废水处理，从而延长其使用寿命，并有助于膜科学和相关材料的循环经济和可持续性。