Ultrafiltration pretreatment to reverse osmosis for seawater desalination — three years field experience in the Wangtan Datang power plant

Abstract

Systems composed of ultrafiltration (UF) pretreatment for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination are often termed “integrated membrane system” or “dual membrane system”. These systems promise to offer reliable handling of very difficult waters, also in regions which have traditionally experienced feed water and pretreatment problems such as Middle East and United States. Nevertheless, data sets presenting long-term integrated operation from a UF and SWRO point of view at a larger scale level, and hence validating the potential cost benefit of UF pretreatment, are very scarce. The dual membrane seawater desalination system at the Wang Tan Power Plant has been operating for three years and is an ideal case to present learnings. Despite some gaps in the data set, some operational problems, and an unconventional low flux and low chemicals operation approach, the authors believe that transparent sharing of this data set can significantly contribute to a better industry understanding of integrated operati...