Long term membrane process and performance in Ashkelon Seawater Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant

Abstract

In this paper the operation of Ashkelon SWRO desalination plant since it was started five years ago is reviewed. This particular installation is key for the history of seawater desalination by reverse osmosis not only because of its permeate production capacity of 100 Million m3/a (later increased to 133 Million m3/a) but also due to the low cost of water attained (50 US $/m3) when it was started up. The performance assessment made to each one of the four stages in Ashkelon indicates that no major variation in terms of energy consumption, yearly production and permeate quality has occurred since the beginning of the operation. The evaluation has been made using normalization tools together with a direct comparison between the operating values collected at the start-up and the current performance. These findings are especially remarkable if we take into consideration that the big majority of the reverse osmosis elements installed in Ashkelon and still in operation are currently more than five years old.