The business of saving water

The successful Metrology and Analytical Technology of a Reverse Osmosis (RO) (RO) unit is not time consuming, requiring only a few minutes per day per RO unitwhich can ultimately reduce the costs for the plant. This article reviews the three paramount tools for Metrology and Analytical Technology RO units.

Europe's largest seawater Reverse Osmosis (RO) project to supply potable water took place at Barcelona's, El Prat desalination plant. Following completion, this plant will be accountable for 20% of the total potable water demand for Barcelona's metropolitan area and improve the water quality, particularly the total dissolved solids. This article reviews this project, expanding on preliminary studies, pilot plant, intake selection, energy recovery device selection and brine and sludge disposal.

Membrane element autopsy provides a powerful means to uncover root causes of complex issues and simplifies the troubleshooting process leading to more rapid resolutions and a reduction in cost. This article discusses the application of element autopsy and provides details on the autopsy process, element selection and evaluation.

Ensuring the correct treatment of membrane fouling, scaling and degradation permits optimal productivity of Reverse Osmosis (RO) (RO) systems as these conditions impact the condition of the RO membrane. Appropriate treatment of RO systems also limits operational costs for the system and is therefore critical to successful applications of RO in high-purity applications. This article revies RO system design and sizing, accurate data collection and interpretation, and suitable pretreatments pivotal to maximize RO membrane performance.

Large advancements in Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane formulation, casting and assembly techniques have resulted from the high demand of this system since the 70s. Such improvements have led to more durable and efficient membrane, however it is not possible to produce high-purity water with a single-pass through an RO membrane due to the subsequent treatment required involving a full train or mixed bed Ion Exchange (IX). This article reviews the fundamentals of double-pass RO and includes a comparison to single-pass RO.

Polyethersulfone material (PES) hollow-fiber ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were examined in a pilot unit at a power generation station in order to determine the performance of the membrane as a precursor to a seawater Reverse Osmosis (RO) system. This article presents the results of the pilot testing which spanned across two months and included the testing of UF module Aa and UF module Bb.

Better plant reliability results in reduced maintenance and production costs and fewer unplanned outages and incidents which promote profits. To achieve this level of plant reliability, a comprehensive system approach for its design is required which incorporates range of factors such as equipment design reliability, spinning reserve capacities, backup capacities and plant structural reliability. These factors form the basis of this article and are discussed throughout.

Recent years have propelled the development of seawater Reverse Osmosis (RO) (SWRO) processes to reduce energy consumption, a leading contributor to operational costs of SWRO. This article reviews the energy consumption of state-of-the-art SWRO membranes and processes at present and examines the cost of improving membranes, assessing how beneficial this will be.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) (RO), a desalination technique, is employed in a wide range of applications from drinking water and boiling feedwater to generating ultrapure water for pharmaceutical and microelectronics industries and advanced wastewater recovery and recycle. It is pivotal that this technology is understood in order to maintain its efficient operation at minimal cost. This article introduces the basics of RO technology including its operation and RO design.

Water treatment involving membrane technologies that are employed in power plants can be categorised into five distinct types. These include Boiler feed and NOx injection, removal of dissolved gases in water for boiler feed, recycled water treatment, cooling tower blowdown recovery and concentration of solids for zero liquid discharge. This article expands on these membrane technologies, offering further insight into how such applications are evolving.