Dewatering and desalination, meaning the extraction of freshwater from waste water or seawater, requires high energy inputs in the form of heat and/or pressure. The disadvantages of the most common method, reverse osmosis, include the irreversible deposition of particulate on the membrane surface and the energy required to surpass the feed solution's osmotic pressure. An emerging alternative that addresses both of these issues is forward osmosis, which relies on the osmotic pressure of a draw solution to pull fresh water from the feed solution.