scholarly journals Improving performance of low pressure reverse osmosis systems by intermittent autoflushing

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
I N Widiasa ◽  
N Sinaga ◽  
D Ariyanti

Improving performance of low pressure reverse osmosis systems by intermittent autoflushing Scaling formation on the membrane surface in the form of calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate, silica, and/or magnesium silicate is a main problem of the reverse osmosis (RO) application for upgrading low grade water. Scaling in RO system is generally controlled by softening the feed water, limiting the recovery and/or the addition of antiscalants which is impractical for household RO system. In this work, the feasibility of intermittent autoflushing to prevent scale formation in household RO systems was investigated. All experiments were carried out using commercially available RO membrane (CSM RE-1812LP) which operated for 6 hours under operating pressure 5 kg/cm2 and total recycle operating mode. Model solution of feed water contain CaCl2 and NaHCO3 were prepared to meet various LSI values in the range of 0 to 1.5. Duration and interval time of autoflush were in the range of 60 to 15 s and 5 to 60 min respectively. The results shown that the permeate flux of the system which operated using intermittent autoflushing relatively stable. It is emphasized that intermittent autoflushing may improve the performance of household reverse osmosis systems.Keywords: Autoflushing, scaling, physical cleaning, reverse osmosis  Abstrak Pembentukan kerak (scaling) pada permukaan membran berupa kerak kalsium karbonat, kalsium sulfat, silika dan atau magnesium silikat merupakan permasalahan utama pada aplikasi sistem membran reverse osmosis (RO) pada proses pemurnian air. Scaling pada sistem RO umumnya dikontrol dengan melakukan pretreatment terhadap air umpan seperti softening, menambahkan zat antiscalant pada saat proses pemisahan serta membatasi tingkat recovery, dimana proses-proses tersebut tidak praktis apabila diaplikasikan pada sistem RO skala rumah tangga. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat kemungkinan metode intermittent autoflush dapat diaplikasikan untuk menghambat terjadinya scaling pada sistem RO skala rumah tangga. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan satu unit membran spiral wound jenis CSM RE-1812LP yang dioperasikan dengan tekanan operasi 5 kg/cm2 dan waktu operasi ± 6 jam. Larutan umpan sintesis dibuat dengan melarutkan CaCl2 dan NaHCO3 hingga nilai LSI mencapai kisaran 0-1,5. Durasi dan interval dari metode intermittent autoflush divariasikan pada kisaran 60-15 detik dan 5-60 menit. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa fluks permeat relatif stabil pada sistem RO yang menggunakan metode intermittent autoflush. Hal ini menandakan bahwa metode intermittent autoflush ini dimungkinkan untuk meningkatkan kinerja dari sistem RO skala rumah tangga.Kata Kunci: Autoflushing, scaling, physical cleaning, reverse osmosis

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 521-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaini Ujang ◽  
G. K. Anderson

This paper describes an investigation on the rejection of the divalent anions from ZnSO4 using LPROMs, and to establish the effect of operating pressure, feed concentration and temperature on metal removal, then to compare with the monovalent anions, ZnCl2. A bench-scale spiral wound configuration of sulphonated polysulphone low pressure reverse osmosis membrane (LPROM) was used to remove heavy metals at various operating conditions, i.e. operating conditions, solute concentrations and temperature. The results show that the higher the operating pressure the greater will be the permeate flux for heavy metals from both mono- and divalent anions. At low operating pressure however, metals from the divalent anions give a higher permeate flux than did the monovalent anions. Permeate flux in both mono- and divalent anions is shown to be subsequently increased by a decrease of the concentration of feed solution. Regarding metal removal, metals from divalent anions were rejected more effectively than monovalent anions at all levels of feed concentration.


Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
Qian Liu ◽  
Lixin Xie ◽  
Hanxiao Du ◽  
Shichang Xu ◽  
Yawei Du

In the production of acrylic acid, the concentration of acrylic acid solution from the adsorption tower was low, which would lead to significant energy consumption in the distillation process to purify acrylic acid, along with the production of a large amount of wastewater. Reverse osmosis (RO) was proposed to concentrate the acrylic acid aqueous solution taken from a specific tray in the absorption tower. The effects of operating conditions on the permeate flux and acid retention were studied with two commercial RO membranes (SWC5 and SWC6). When the operating pressure was 4 MPa and the temperature was 25 °C, the permeate fluxes of two membranes were about 20 L·m−2·h−1. The acrylic acid and acetic acid retentions were about 80% and 78%, respectively. After being immersed in the acid solutions for several months, the characteristics of the two membranes were tested to evaluate their acid resistance. After six months of exposure to the acid solution containing 2.5% acrylic acid and 2.5% acetic acid, the retentions of acrylic acid and acetic acid were decreased by 5.7% and 4.1% for SWC5 and 4.9% and 2.2% for SWC6, respectively. The changes of membrane surface morphology and chemical composition showed the hydrolysis of some amide bonds.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wajid Ali ◽  
Waheed Ur Rehman ◽  
Mohammad Younas ◽  
Muhammad Imran Ahmad ◽  
Saeed Gul

Abstract The present case study is focused on performance evaluation of a Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane based pilot plant to treat the ground/surface drinking water sources polluted by flood, rivers and/or canals. The RO plant was designed, fabricated and then operated with polluted water. Two feed water samples having a TDS of 2.000 mg · L−1 and 10.000 mg · L−1 respectively, were taken and analyzed for physical, chemical and microbiological contaminants. The RO plant was run once through over a span of 100 hrs at an operating pressure of 15 bar. TDS rejections were found to be more than 94% while permeate flux was measured to be 25.82 L · m−2 · hr−1 to 40.55 L · m−2 · hr−1. Results show that RO plant has a potential to remove physical, chemical and microbiological contaminants like Total Coliform and E. Coli in one step.


Author(s):  
Leonid S. Bobe ◽  
Nikolay A. Salnikov

Analysis and calculation have been conducted of the process of low-pressure reverse osmosis in the membrane apparatus of the system for recycling hygiene water for the space station. The paper describes the physics of the reverse osmosis treatment and determines the motive force of the process, which is the difference of effective pressures (operating pressure minus osmotic pressure) in the solution near the surface of the membrane and in the purified water. It is demonstrated that the membrane scrubbing action is accompanied by diffusion outflow of the cleaning agent components away from the membrane. The mass transfer coefficient and the difference of concentrations (and, accordingly, the difference of osmotic pressures) in the boundary layer of the pressure channel can be determined using an extended analogy between mass transfer and heat transfer. A procedure has been proposed and proven in an experiment for calculating the throughput of a reverse osmosis apparatus purifying the hygiene water obtained through the use of a cleaning agent used in sanitation and housekeeping procedures on Earth. Key words: life support system, hygiene water, water processing, low-pressure reverse osmosis, space station.


Author(s):  
Seungjae Oh ◽  
Semyung Wang ◽  
Minkyu Park ◽  
Joonha Kim

The objective of this study is to design spacers using fluid topology optimization in 2D crossflow Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane channel to improve the performance of RO processes. This study is an initial attempt to apply topology optimization to designing spacers in RO membrane channel. The performance was evaluated by the quantity of permeate flux penetrating both upper and lower membrane surfaces. A coupled Navier-Stokes and Convection-Diffusion model was employed to calculate the permeate flux. To get reliable solutions, stabilization methods were employed with standard finite element method. The nine reference models which consist of the combination of circle, rectangular, triangle shape and zigzag, cavity, submerge configuration of spacers were simulated. Such models were compared with new model designed by topology optimization. The permeate flux at both membrane surfaces was determined as an objective function. In addition, permissible pressure drop along the channel and spacer volume were used as constraints. As a result of topology optimization as the permissible pressure drop changes in channel, characteristics of spacer design development was founded. Spacer design based on topology optimization was reconstructed to a simple one considering manufactuability and characteristics of development spacer design. When a simplified design was compared with previous 9 models, new design has a better performance in terms of permeate flux and wall concentration at membrane surface.


2012 ◽  
Vol 562-564 ◽  
pp. 913-916
Author(s):  
Hai Du ◽  
Yan Bin Qu ◽  
Shu Kang Cheng

A novel, environmental friendly dynamic rotating electromagnetic heating-magnetizing device is proposed, which can heat up and magnetize the low temperature feed water of reverse osmosis system. The device converts input mechanical energy into heat energy completely. The structure and operation mechanism are discussed in detail, and the mathematical model of loss is established based on fundamental electromagnetic field theory. At last, the effects of water magnetization treated by the device are introduced, which inhibits scaling on the reverse osmosis membrane surface and slows down the corrosion of metal surface.


REAKTOR ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.N. Widiasa ◽  
I Gede Wenten

An integrated membrane system combining reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodeionization (EDI) is used for simultaneous sugar concentration and salts removal from a synthetic dilute sugar solution as a model of sugar-containing wastewater. The RO system uses a thin film composite RO membrane (Saehan CSM, RE1812-60). Meanwhile, the EDI stack has two diluted compartments, one concentrated compartment, one anode compartment, and one cathode compartment. Commercially available cation exchange membrane (MC-3470) and anion exchange membrane (MA-3475) are used as ionic selective barriers of the EDI stack. Both diluate and concentrate compartments are filled with mixed ion exchange resins (purolite strong acid cation exchange, C-100E and strong base type I anion resins, A-400). Two different operation modes, i.e. RO-EDI and EDI-RO, were assessed. The experimental results show that the observed sugar rejection of RO membrane is more than 99.9% and there is no sugar loss in the EDI stack. This indicates that the hybrid process allows almost total sugar recovery. In addition, significant reduction of salts content from the concentrated sugar solution is obtained. From permeate flux and permeate purity points of view, however, the EDI-RO configuration seems superior to the RO-EDI configuration. It should be emphasized that scale formation on the membrane surface of the concentrate compartment side has to be controlled.


2008 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Gryta

AbstractMembrane distillation was used to produce demineralized water from ground water. The influence of feed water pretreatment carried out in a contact clarifier (softening with Ca(OH)2 and coagulation with FeSO4 · 7H2O) followed by filtration, on the process effectiveness was evaluated. It was found that the chemical pretreatment decreased the membrane fouling; however, the degree of water purification was insufficient because precipitation of small amounts of deposit on the membrane surface during the process operation was still observed. The permeate flux was gradually decreasing as a result of scaling. The morphology and composition of the fouling layer were studied using scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersion spectrometry. The presence of significant amounts of silica, apart from calcium and magnesium, was determined in the formed deposit. The removal of foulants by heterogeneous crystallization performed inside the filter (70 mesh), assembled directly at the module inlet, was found to be a solution preventing the membrane scaling.


2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 161-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R.A. Razak ◽  
Z. Ujang ◽  
H. Ozaki

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are the focus of current environmental issues, as they can cause adverse health effects to animals and human, subsequent to endocrine function. The objective of this study was to remove a specific compound of EDCs (i.e. pentachlorophenol, C6OCL5Na, molecular weight of 288 g/mol) using low pressure reverse osmosis membrane (LPROM). A cross flow module of LPROM was used to observe the effects of operating parameters, i.e. pH, operating pressure and temperature. The design of the experiment was based on MINITABTM software, and the analysis of results was conducted by factorial analysis. It was found that the rejection of pentachlorophenol was higher than 80% at a recovery rate of 60 to 70%. The rejection was subjected to increase with the increase of pH. The flux was observed to be increased with the increase of operating pressure and temperature. This study also investigated the interaction effects between operating parameters involved.


2006 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Karakulski ◽  
M. Gryta ◽  
M. Sasim

AbstractApplication of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, and integrated membrane processes for the preparation of process water from natural water or industrial effluents was investigated. A two-stage reverse osmosis plant enabled almost complete removal of solutes from the feed water. High-purity water was prepared using the membrane distillation. However, during this process a rapid membrane fouling and permeate flux decline was observed when the tap water was used as a feed. The precipitation of deposit in the modules was limited by the separation of sparingly soluble salts from the feed water in the nanofiltration. The combined reverse osmosis—membrane distillation process prevented the formation of salt deposits on the membranes employed for the membrane distillation. Ultrafiltration was found to be very effective removing trace amounts of oil from the feed water. Then the ultrafiltration permeate was used for feeding of the remaining membrane modules resulting in the total removal of oil residue contamination. The ultrafiltration allowed producing process water directly from the industrial effluents containing petroleum derivatives.


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