Water scarcity is one of the major issues that has put economic growth, societal stability, and ecosystem balance unstable. Wastewater reuse has been recognised as a viable method for securing potable water supply. Due to its inherent advantages over pressure-driven and energy-intensive reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) is one of the most researched technologies for wastewater reuse applications. However, the draw solution (DS) regeneration stage is one of the key bottlenecks of the process. Membrane distillation (MD), on the other hand, is an emerging technology that could provide a cost-effective thermally-driven purification process, especially when combined with waste heat or solar thermal. Nevertheless, the MD process also has several drawbacks, such as membrane pore wetting. The MD process can effectively regenerate the FO draw solution and produce high-quality water when integrated with the FO process. Within the hybrid process, the FO membrane removes the contaminants from the feed solution and the MD process is only used to regenerate the DS with no significant membrane wetting. It is, therefore, important to study the integrated FO-MD process to overcome the limitations of individual membrane processes. Integrated FO-MD economics, process design, and modelling of different applications are thoroughly reviewed in this contribution. Future research directions and prospects for scale-up are suggested.

水资源短缺是导致经济增长、社会稳定和生态系统平衡不稳定的主要问题之一。废水再利用已被公认为确保饮用水供应的可行方法。由于其相对于压力驱动和能源密集型反渗透 (RO) 的固有优势，正向渗透 (FO) 是废水回用应用中研究最多的技术之一。然而，汲取溶液 (DS) 再生阶段是该工艺的关键瓶颈之一。另一方面，膜蒸馏 (MD) 是一种新兴技术，可以提供具有成本效益的热驱动净化过程，尤其是与废热或太阳能热结合时。然而，MD 工艺也有几个缺点，例如膜孔润湿。MD 工艺与 FO 工艺集成后，可有效再生 FO 汲取溶液并生产优质水。在混合工艺中，FO 膜从进料溶液中去除污染物，而 MD 工艺仅用于再生 DS，而不会显着润湿膜。因此，研究集成的 FO-MD 工艺以克服单个膜工艺的局限性非常重要。本文对不同应用的综合 FO-MD 经济学、工艺设计和建模进行了全面审查。提出了未来的研究方向和规模化前景。FO 膜从进料溶液中去除污染物，MD 过程仅用于再生 DS，不会显着润湿膜。因此，研究集成的 FO-MD 工艺以克服单个膜工艺的局限性非常重要。本文对不同应用的综合 FO-MD 经济学、工艺设计和建模进行了全面审查。提出了未来的研究方向和规模化前景。FO 膜从进料溶液中去除污染物，MD 过程仅用于再生 DS，不会显着润湿膜。因此，研究集成的 FO-MD 工艺以克服单个膜工艺的局限性非常重要。本文对不同应用的综合 FO-MD 经济学、工艺设计和建模进行了全面审查。提出了未来的研究方向和规模化前景。