Seawater Reverse Osmosis Process Research Articles

Comprehensive analysis of energy saving and high-quality permeate production strategies for a large-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant with diverse process configurations and external resource utilization

Comprehensive analysis of energy saving and high-quality permeate production strategies for a large-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant with diverse process configurations and external resource utilization

Understanding the fouling characteristics in ultrafiltration membrane for marine algae-laden seawater pretreatment: Focus on the role of algal extracellular organic matter

Understanding the fouling characteristics in ultrafiltration membrane for marine algae-laden seawater pretreatment: Focus on the role of algal extracellular organic matter

Bisulfite-activated permanganate oxidation plus coagulation as a pretreatment of SWRO desalination lines to enhance boron rejection

Bisulfite-activated permanganate oxidation plus coagulation as a pretreatment of SWRO desalination lines to enhance boron rejection

Using Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Technology in Seawater Desalination Processes

Water is one of the basic needs for human life, including for people living on the coast. It is difficult to get clean water for consumption because most coastal areas are affected by sea conditions that have high salinity. In order to be consumed, the saline water must be desalinated. Desalination is a process to convert saline water into fresh water. One such desalination technology is using reverse osmosis (RO). The purpose of this study was to determine the process of desalination of seawater into freshwater using the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) method. The method used in this research is observation, which is to see directly the stages of the desalination process of seawater into fresh water. The data was obtained in the form of primary data from observations and secondary data from the literature to support primary data. Analysis of the data used in the form of descriptive analysis by describing each stage carried out in the SWRO process. The results showed that the seawater desalination process using SWRO technology had 14 stages. These stages include; intake, raw water pump, raw water reservoir, UF feed pump, Automatic screen, ultrafiltration, UF water reservoir, RO feed pump, HPP & booster, RO membrane, RO water reservoir, permeate pump, chlorine analyzer, product water. In developed and developing countries, SWRO units have been widely used, because by processing seawater into freshwater, there are many benefits for the life cycle and it is environmentally friendly. It also maintains underground fresh water so that it can provide plant life, and trees that provide us with clean oxygen for our lives.

Seawater Reverse Osmosis Performance Decline Caused by Short-Term Elevated Feed Water Temperature.

The shortage of fresh water resources has made the desalination of seawater a widely adopted technology. Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is the most commonly used method for desalination. The SWRO process is energy-intensive, and most of the energy in SWRO is spent on pressurizing the seawater to overcome the osmotic barrier for producing fresh water. The pressure needed depends on the salinity of the seawater, its temperature, and the membrane surface properties. Membrane compaction occurs in SWRO due to hydraulic pressure application for long-term operations and operating temperature fluctuations due to seasonal seawater changes. This study investigates the effects of short-term feed water temperature increase on the SWRO process in a full-scale pilot with pretreatment and a SWRO installation consisting of a pressure vessel which contains seven industrial-scale 8” diameter spiral wound membrane elements. A SWRO feed water temperature of 40 °C, even for a short period of 7 days, caused a permanent performance decline illustrated by a strong specific energy consumption increase of 7.5%. This study highlights the need for membrane manufacturer data that account for the water temperature effect on membrane performance over a broad temperature range. There is a need to develop new membranes that are more tolerant to temperature fluctuations.

Performance model for reverse osmosis

Performance model for reverse osmosis

Proteoliposome-Incorporated Seawater Reverse Osmosis Polyamide Membrane: Is the Aquaporin Water Channel Effect in Improving Membrane Performance Overestimated?

The water channel feature of the aquaporin (AQP) is considered to be the key in improving the permselectivity of AQP-based thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) membranes, yet much less attention has been paid to the physicochemical property changes of the PA layer induced by AQP-reconstituted proteoliposomes. This study systematically investigated the roles of proteoliposome constituents (liposome/detergent/AQP) in affecting the physicochemical properties and performance of the membranes. For the first time, we demonstrated that the constituents in the proteoliposome could facilitate the formation of a PA layer with enlarged protuberances and thinner crumples, resulting in a 79% increase in effective surface area and lowering of hydraulic resistance for filtration. These PA structural changes of the AQP-based membrane were found to contribute over 70% to the water permeability increase via comparing the separation performance of the membranes prepared with liposome, detergent, and proteoliposome, respectively, and one proteoliposome-ruptured membrane. The contribution from the AQP water channel feature was about 27% of water permeability increase in the current study, attributed to only ∼20% vesicle coverage in the PA matrix, and this contribution may be easily lost as a result of vesicle rupture during the real seawater reverse osmosis process. This study reveals that the changed morphology dominates the performance improvement of the AQP-based PA membrane and well explains why the actual AQP-based PA membranes cannot acquire the theoretical water/salt selectivity of a biomimetic AQP membrane, deepening our understanding of the AQP-based membranes.

Surface-engineered sulfonation of ion-selective nanofiltration membrane with robust scaling resistance for seawater desalination

Surface-engineered sulfonation of ion-selective nanofiltration membrane with robust scaling resistance for seawater desalination

Design strategies for reducing energy and total costs for large-scale seawater reverse osmosis plants

One of the main obstacles limiting seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) from becoming a more widespread solution to water shortages is the overall capital and operational costs, partially driven by energy consumption required for the SWRO process. Since its inception, however, the power requirement for SWRO has decreased dramatically through numerous factors, including improved RO membrane performance, the introduction of energy recovery systems, and improved design practices and efficiency. While many of these solutions relate to technological advances, membrane system design can be optimised during the design stage and maximise total cost savings of using SWRO. Improving design practice of SWRO to reduce power consumption requires a thorough analysis of all components, such as operating conditions, recovery, system flux, and membrane model selection. This paper presents essential design considerations that impact energy use and strategies for maximising total cost savings for SWRO plants.

A review of reverse osmosis process for seawater desalination

The freshwater availability in many regions of the world has been a rising concern for the last few decades due to disturbing increase in population, urbanization, and industrial advancement. As water consumption is increasing year by year, the obvious solution to the freshwater shortage is to increase its supply. Desalination has been a prominent process to produce fresh water in numerous water-stressed regions to counteract the water shortage issues. Amongst the various desalination methods, the reverse osmosis method is used for generating fresh water from saline or brackish water by removing salts to make it suitable for human utilization, agriculture, and industrial purposes. In the present study, a systematic review of the seawater reverse osmosis process is presented to address the developments in the pretreatment, membrane, and post-treatment processes of reverse osmosis.

Removal, Reuse and Recovery of Carbon-Dioxide by Integrating Membrane Contactors in a High-Ph Single-Pass Seawater Reverse Osmosis Process

Removal, Reuse and Recovery of Carbon-Dioxide by Integrating Membrane Contactors in a High-Ph Single-Pass Seawater Reverse Osmosis Process

Reuse of sea water reverse osmosis brine to produce Dunaliella salina based β-carotene as a valuable bioproduct: A circular bioeconomy perspective

Reuse of sea water reverse osmosis brine to produce Dunaliella salina based β-carotene as a valuable bioproduct: A circular bioeconomy perspective

Comprehensive analysis of a hybrid FO-NF-RO process for seawater desalination: With an NF-like FO membrane

Comprehensive analysis of a hybrid FO-NF-RO process for seawater desalination: With an NF-like FO membrane

Towards sustainable circular brine reclamation using seawater reverse osmosis, membrane distillation and forward osmosis hybrids: An experimental investigation

Towards sustainable circular brine reclamation using seawater reverse osmosis, membrane distillation and forward osmosis hybrids: An experimental investigation

Assessment of water quality variations on pretreatment and environmental impacts of SWRO desalination

Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination is a widely adopted desalination technology given its cost effectiveness and lower energy consumption compared to thermal methods. However, SWRO is sensitive to intake water quality and requires strict pretreatment, which requires significant chemical inputs. This study evaluates the relative environmental impacts of water quality (site selection) and specific selection of chemicals on the overall environmental burden of the SWRO process. A life cycle assessment was carried out of environmental emissions based on an existing SWRO plant in the Arabian Gulf, which was remodelled and sized in AqMB® software based on different intake water quality gathered from seawater samples collected from 19 locations across 563 km of Arabian Gulf coastline. The study concluded that a total reduction of close to 25% in different environmental impacts was possible only by optimizing the location of plant, while careful selection of chemicals, particularly those in coagulation, disinfection and pH neutralization, could significantly influence environmental impact categories with high normalized impact such as marine ecotoxicity potential (MAETP). In comparison, renewable energy in the form of wind provided large reductions in certain significant impact categories, but provided a large increase in MAETP compared to natural gas.

Toward scale-up of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) – pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) hybrid system: A case study of a 240 m3/day pilot plant

Toward scale-up of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) – pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) hybrid system: A case study of a 240 m3/day pilot plant

Comprehensive analysis of a hybrid FO/crystallization/RO process for improving its economic feasibility to seawater desalination

Comprehensive analysis of a hybrid FO/crystallization/RO process for improving its economic feasibility to seawater desalination

Comparative performance of FO-RO hybrid and two-pass SWRO desalination processes: Boron removal

Comparative performance of FO-RO hybrid and two-pass SWRO desalination processes: Boron removal

Acidification and decarbonization in seawater: Potential pretreatment steps for biofouling control in SWRO membranes

Acidification and decarbonization in seawater: Potential pretreatment steps for biofouling control in SWRO membranes

Application Study of URCⓇ-A Process as a Feedwater Controlling Step of UF Pretreatment in SWRO Process

In this study, a pilot study combining UF pretreatment with URC Ⓡ -A process was carried out in SWRO desalination. From these experiments, it was confirmed that source seawater quality parameters required for SWRO desalination such as turbidity below 0.1 NTU, TOC below 1.0 mg/L, SDI below 3, algal cells below 300 cells/mL were obtained from this pilot system. In case of high turbidity such as over 40 NTU, 99.2% removal from 42.59 NTU to 0.35 NTU was obtained after URC Ⓡ -A process. In case of high algal condition, over 90% removal was achieved and turbidity below 0.4 NTU, TOC below 1.0 mg/L, algal cells below 300 cells/mL were obtained. By introducing URCⓇ-A process, TMP of UF membrane was lowered 33% than without URCⓇ-A process, after then TMP was maintained continuously at 0.4 bar. In case of high turbidity and high algal conditions, UF process operation was very stable without any bad influence, thanks to good and stable performance of URC Ⓡ -A process. After then, when, without appling URCⓇ-A, original source seawater entered the UF pretreatment, TMP was raised to about 16%. This shows that particulate matter and organic matter in source seawater can cause membrane fouling within a month. The introduction of URC Ⓡ -A process as pretreatment step enabled stable operation of UF process and the lower TMP level of 0.4 bar could be maintained continuously to increase maintenance cleaning cycle and CIP cycle. This operation mode with longer maintenance cleaning and CIP cycles can be more economical than conventional operation mode. Key words: UF (Ultra Filtration) Pretreatment, SWRO (Seawater Reverse Osmosis), URCⓇ-A, TMP (Trans-Membrane Pressure), SDI (Silting Density Index), Algae, TOC (Total Organic Carbon)