Feasibility of reverse osmosis desalination of brackish agricultural drainage water in the San Joaquin Valley

Abstract

The technical feasibility of reverse osmosis (RO) desalination of agricultural drainage (AD) water in California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV) was evaluated based on systematic analysis of water quality monitoring data and field water desalting tests in a laboratory plate-and-frame RO (PFRO) system. Thermodynamic solubility analysis and diagnostic PFRO desalting tests served to determine the feasible range of water recovery limits and to assess the mineral scaling potential. Analysis of the recovery limits imposed by scaling due to sparingly soluble salts (e.g. calcite, gypsum, silica) suggested feasible recoveries in the range of 46%–69%. Diagnostic PFRO desalting tests with five representative field water sources from the SJV (having gypsum and calcite saturation indices in the range of 0.12–1.03 and 2.9–9.5, respectively) confirmed the above recovery range. Mineral scale coverage was consistent with the observed flux decline. Deployment of RO technology for treatment of brackish SJV AD water would require site-specific process optimization given the geographic and temporal water quality variabilities. Therefore, RO operation with variable feed water quality (with respect to salinity and scaling propensity) and at sufficiently high recovery would require effective plant control, enabled by real-time mineral scale detection and adaptable process operation to mitigate mineral scaling.