Assessment of fate of contaminants of emerging concern in forward osmosis-reverse osmosis-anaerobic digestion hybrid: A literature-based approach

Growing water demand has accelerated interest in seawater (SW) desalination and water reuse. Forward osmosis (FO) enables osmotic dilution of SW for low‑energy reverse osmosis (RO) while pre‑concentrating wastewater (WW) for anaerobic digestion (AD), creating an integrated FO–RO–AD hybrid for reuse and resource recovery. Understanding the fate of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) is critical due to their increasing detection in both WW and SW. Existing research is fragmented and largely focused on single‑unit processes, leaving a system-level gap in understanding contaminant dynamics across interconnected barriers. This study presents a literature-driven assessment framework to evaluate CEC partitioning and fate in an FO–RO–AD hybrid system. The model integrates literature‑derived rejection/removal data for 19 commonly studied compounds and uses environmentally relevant CEC concentrations to evaluate fate under baseline and sensitivity scenarios. FO and RO exhibit high rejection for CECs; in the FO–RO hybrid, the two dense membranes provide a strong barrier that enables safe water reuse. Compounds persistent through the AD stage remain in treated concentrated WW requiring proper management. Sensitivity analysis shows FO recovery and the WW:SW ratio governs contaminant levels in AD effluent, while RO permeate remains robust. A comparative evaluation against standalone SWRO desalination and conventional AD–RO water‑reuse trains was performed to contextualize the performance of the FO–RO–AD hybrid by comparing how different treatment configurations influence CEC partitioning among permeate and side streams.