Optimization of seawater desalination processes with the ideal reverse osmosis equation

Abstract

The optimization of a membrane seawater desalination system is used to be a very complicated and time consuming process because tedious calculations are required to determine permeate recovery of the membrane system. This process can be greatly streamlined when the ideal reverse osmosis model is used to calculate the recovery of the membrane system. With this model, the pressure for a designated recovery can be determined conveniently and accurately from the basic parameters of a membrane system. Then the specific cost under various conditions can be calculated for the recovery. Finally, the recovery that minimized the specific cost for the permeate production can be easily determined graphically. The impacts of energy, membrane, feed water pretreatment, and concentrate handling on the optimal recovery of a membrane desalination process are demonstrated. The avoidance of a large number of equations and numerical integration in the determination of permeate recovery can greatly facilitate the optimization of design and operation of seawater desalination processes.