Assessment of ultrafiltration as a pretreatment of reverse osmosis membranes for surface seawater desalination

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 437-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Brehant ◽  
V. Bonnelye ◽  
M. Perez
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Low Dose ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Surface Seawater ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Desalination Plants ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Variable Quality

Pre-treatment of seawater feeding reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is a key step in designing desalination plants, especially when treating surface seawater with highly variable quality. The objective of the study was to assess the potential of ultrafiltration (UF) pre-treatment prior to RO for desalting seawater with high-fouling tendency. A UF pilot plant equipped with an Aquasource membrane was directly operated on Gibraltar surface seawater in dead-end mode. The competitiveness of UF pre-treatment towards conventional pre-treatment was assessed by looking at the impact on RO hydraulic performances. The study showed that UF provided permeate water with higher quality than with a conventional pre-treatment. The main seawater compounds responsible for UF fouling were organic matter released by phytoplanktonic organisms. The combination of UF with a pre-coagulation at low dose helped in controlling this fouling and providing water in steady state conditions. The performance of RO membranes downstream of UF exceeded the usual operating conditions encountered in seawater desalination. The combined effect of higher recovery and higher flux rate promises to significantly reduce the RO plant costs.

scholarly journals Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply

Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Latifah Abdul Ghani ◽  
Nora’aini Ali ◽  
Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran ◽  
Marlia M. Hanafiah
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
Seawater Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Desalination Technology ◽  
The Impact

Seawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant installed in Kampung Pantai Senok, Kelantan, as this plant was the first installed in Malaysia. The software SimaPro 8.5 together with the ReCiPe 2016 database were used as tools to evaluate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SWRO plant. The results showed that the impact of global warming (3.90 kg CO2 eq/year) was the highest, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.62 kg 1,4-DCB/year) and fossil resource scarcity (1.29 kg oil eq/year). The impact of global warming was caused by the natural gas used to generate the electricity, mainly during the RO process. Reducing the environmental impact can be effectively achieved by decreasing the electricity usage for the seawater desalination process. As a suggestion, electricity generation can be overcome by using a high-flux membrane with other suitable renewable energy for the plant such as solar and wind energy.

scholarly journals Optimization of Energy Efficiency, Operation Costs, Carbon Footprint and Ecological Footprint with Reverse Osmosis Membranes in Seawater Desalination Plants

Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 781
Author(s):  
Federico Leon ◽  
Alejandro Ramos ◽  
S. Ovidio Perez-Baez
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Ecological Footprint ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
Operation Costs ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Desalination Plants ◽  
Reverse Osmosis Membranes

This article shows the optimization of the reverse osmosis process in seawater desalination plants, taking the example of the Canary Islands, where there are more than 320 units of different sizes, both private and public. The objective is to improve the energy efficiency of the system in order to save on operation costs as well as reduce the carbon and ecological footprints. Reverse osmosis membranes with higher surface area have lower energy consumption, as well as energy recovery systems to recover the brine pressure and introduce it in the system. Accounting for the operation, maintenance and handling of the membranes is also important in energy savings, in order to improve the energy efficiency. The energy consumption depends on the permeate water quality required and the model of the reverse osmosis membrane installed in the seawater desalination plant, as it is shown in this study.

scholarly journals Construction and operation of the MIDES plant

2021 ◽  
pp. 105-136
Author(s):  
Naiara Hernández-Ibáñez ◽  
Juan Arévalo ◽  
Vicente F. Mena ◽  
Victor Monsalvo-Garcia ◽  
Frank Rogalla
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Brackish Water ◽  
Water Sources ◽  
Water Desalination ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
Desalination Plant ◽  
Microbial Desalination Cell ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Construction Operation ◽  
Different Water Sources

Abstract This chapter presents the construction, operation, and validation of all the MIDES systems, including water pre-treatment, wastewater pre-treatment, the microbial desalination cell (MDC), low-pressure reverse osmosis (RO), and post-treatment (remineralization and disinfection). MIDES technology has been validated with different water sources: brackish water from Demo Site 1, (Racons Brackish Water Desalination Plant (BWDP), located in Denia, Spain) and seawater from Demo Site 2 (Fonsalía Seawater Desalination Plant (SWDP), located in Guía de Isora, Spain). In this chapter, the preparation of both demo sites for the reception and installation of the pilot plants is also presented.

scholarly journals Performance Assessment of SWRO Spiral-Wound Membrane Modules with Different Feed Spacer Dimensions

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 692 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ruiz-García ◽  
I. Nuez
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Pressure Vessels ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Solute Permeability ◽  
Permeability Coefficients ◽  
Water Permeability Coefficient ◽  
Seawater Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Membrane Modules ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Spiral Wound

Reverse osmosis is the leading process in seawater desalination. However, it is still an energy intensive technology. Feed spacer geometry design is a key factor in reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane module performance. Correlations obtained from experimental work and computational fluid dynamics modeling were used in a computational tool to simulate the impact of different feed spacer geometries in seawater reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane modules with different permeability coefficients in pressure vessels with 6, 7 and 8 elements. The aim of this work was to carry out a comparative analysis of the effect of different feed spacer geometries in combination with the water and solute permeability coefficients on seawater reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane modules performance. The results showed a higher impact of feed spacer geometries in the membrane with the highest production (highest water permeability coefficient). It was also found that the impact of feed spacer geometry increased with the number of spiral wound membrane modules in series in the pressure vessel. Installation of different feed spacer geometries in reverse osmosis membranes depending on the operating conditions could improve the performance of seawater reverse osmosis systems in terms of energy consumption and permeate quality.

scholarly journals Air Backwash Efficiency on Organic Fouling of UF Membranes Applied to Shellfish Hatchery Effluents

Membranes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clémence Cordier ◽  
Christophe Stavrakakis ◽  
Patrick Sauvade ◽  
Franz Coelho ◽  
Philippe Moulin
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Surface ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Particle Removal ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Biodiversity Preservation ◽  
Organic Fouling ◽  
Uf Membranes ◽  
The Impact

Among all the techniques studied to overcome fouling generated in dead-end filtration, the injection of air during backwashes proved to be the most effective. Indeed, shear stress engendered by the two-phase flow enhanced particle removal on membrane surface. This work aims to study the injection of air to drain the membranes before backwash. Firstly, the efficiency of this backwash procedure was evaluated during the ultrafiltration of seawater on a semi industrial pilot plant using different operating conditions. Then, the treatment of seawater, doped with oyster gametes to simulate the filtration of shellfish hatchery effluents, was performed to confirm the hydraulic performance of the air backwash. Indeed, the release of gametes, expulsed by exotic bivalves in the natural environment, could be a risk for the biodiversity preservation. The impact of air backwash on the integrity of oocytes and spermatozoa was identified using flow cytometry and microscopic analyses. When oyster gametes were added, their retention by ultrafiltration was validated. The impact of air backwash on these species viability was a significant information point for the implementation of this process on shellfish production farms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document