Title

Simulations Of Full-Scale Reverse Osmosis Membrane Process

Keywords

Desalination; Membranes; Simulation; Water treatment

Abstract

Performance of a two-stage full-scale reverse osmosis (RO) process for a desalination plant in Florida was simulated with a mathematical model based on the principles of membrane transport and mass conservation. In this model, water flux at any point along the filtration channel is calculated locally according to the basic transport theory of RO membranes. The changes in cross-flow velocity and salt concentration along the filtration channel were determined using mass balance principles of water and salt. Simulations of the plant performance were compared with the in-plant observation data over a period of more than 300 days. The results showed that the model could adequately describe the performance of the full-scale RO process based on a few module and operating parameters. The study also revealed that salt rejection of a RO membrane changed with feed salt concentration. The osmotic pressure coefficient that fits best with performance of this plant was substantially lower than the value determined with the "rule of thumb" (i.e., osmotic pressure in psi≈0.01 X total dissolved solids in mg/L) and had to be determined specifically for the particular feed water being processed.

Publication Date

10-1-2002

Publication Title

Journal of Environmental Engineering

Volume

128

Issue

10

Number of Pages

960-966

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2002)128:10(960)

Socpus ID

0036794834 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0036794834

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