Sea water desalination by reverse osmosis in chigasaki laboratory

For the purpose of constructing a reverse osmosis [RO) sea water desalination plant of 800 m³/day capacity, a series of tests on the following themes have been carried out in the Chigasaki Laboratory:

1. Performance and durability of 8B modules made in Japan

2. Simplification of pretreatment system

3. Establishment of energy recovery system.

Domestic modules showed good and stable performance during long term operation, and water recovery ratio of these modules have been raised to 40%.

In-line coagulation and filtration system has been established for the pretreatment of feed sea water, instead of coagulation, sedimentation and filtration system.

The energy recovery equipment is consisted of a high-pressure pump, a motor and a hydraulic turbine on a common base. Recovered energy from pressurized brine is used for the auxiliary motive power of the high-pressure pump. The experimental data show that about 20% of required power for the pump was recovered.     

Feasibility study for reclamation of a secondary treated sewage effluent mainly from industrial sources using a dual membrane process

A feasibility study for reclamation of a secondary treated sewage effluent mainly from industrial sources (60%) in Singapore has been conducted using a dual membrane UF-RO process. The pilot system had a treatment capacity of 2 m³/h. The UF unit and RO unit were operated at 70–80% and 40% water recovery, respectively. Six-month run for the pilot was carried out to study the stability and fouling tendency of membranes.

The characteristics of the raw feed indicated that ammonia-N was consistently high at 30–50 mg/L. Very high fluctuations in iron (0.3–3.7 mg/L), turbidity (1–27.1 NTU) and TOC (3.2–56.7 mg/L) were observed. Nitrate was low at <0.2 mg/L. The results of the study showed that dosage of alum in the UF process significantly reduced organic foulants and phosphate scalants. The polymeric RO membrane could tolerate organics from industrial wastewater and performed >96% salt rejection at the end of the study after 6 months. The study concluded the dual membrane process was capable of reclaiming the sewage effluent mainly from industrial sources for industrial use.     

Reverse osmosis desalination plants — marine environmentalist regulator point of view

The environmental characteristics of the brine and its impacts on the marine environment were always the “backyard” and the less concern while planning and operating RO desalination plants. The lack of drinking water in Israel made desalination a national goal. The first huge RO plant was initially operated in Israel on 2005 — 100 Mm³/y and by the end of 2010 305 Mm³/y potable water expected to be produced. Construction and installation of desalination plants requires applying suitable environmental solutions for protecting and preserving the marine and coastal environment from ruin or deterioration.

The Israeli environmental legislation is described including the marine environmental policy and regulations as well as the acquired operational experience during the last two years. Results from the first year of operation and monitoring are shown along with the new appearance of the red phenomenon discharge of VID desalination plant in Ashkelon.

The environmental policy based on the precautionary principle is performed and includes environmental requirements and guidelines for pretreatment, discharge composition, planning marine outfall, background and compliance marine monitoring program and discharge quality standards.     

Treatment of Leather Plant Effluent by Membrane Separation Processes

Abstract

A scheme is proposed for the treatment of the leather plant effluent using membrane based separation processes. The effluent coming out from the various upstream units of the leather plant (except chrome tanning) are combined and a two step pressure driven membrane processes involving nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are adopted after a pretreatment consisting of gravity settling, coagulation, and cloth filtration. The entire membrane separation scheme is validated by conducting experiments under a continuous cross flow mode. A detailed parametric study for cross flow experiments is investigated to observe the effects of the operating conditions, i.e., the transmembrane pressure drop and the cross flow velocity on the permeate flux and quality for both NF and RO. Using a combination of osmotic pressure and solution diffusion model for both NF and RO, the effective osmotic pressure coefficient, solute diffusivity, and the solute permeability through the membrane are obtained by optimizing the experimental permeate flux and concentration (in terms of total dissolved solids) values for this complex industrial effluent. The BOD and COD values of the finally treated effluent are well within the permissible limits (in India).     

Benefits of High Shear Rate Dynamic Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis: A Review

Dynamic filtration permits to increase permeate flux and membrane selectivity, as compared to crossflow filtration. It consists in creating the shear rate by a disk rotating near the membrane or by rotating or vibrating the membrane, avoiding the need for large feed flow rates. The benefits of high shear rates are important in microfiltration and ultrafiltration, but they are even larger in nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). The reduction in concentration polarization by high shear rate can increase the permeate flux by a ratio of 3 to 5 as compared to a spiral wound module and augments also solutes rejection as their diffusive transfer through the membrane is reduced by a factor of 4 to 5. This paper describes available dynamic filtration modules suitable for NF and RO and reviews the treatment of dairy effluents, desalination, oil emulsions, and oligosaccharides recovery using a rotating disk module or a VSEP module with vibrating membranes and compares their performances with those of crossflow filtration. These examples confirm the high potential of dynamic NF and RO when operated at high shear rate and high TMP. The availability of large rotating NF ceramic membrane disks could permit the fabrication of highly efficient modules.     

Effect of transfer in the vapour phase on the extraction by pervaporation through organophilic membranes: experimental analysis on model solutions and theoretical extrapolation

Mass transfer in pervaporation is usually regarded as limited by the solution-diffusion step inside the dense selective polymer layer. In the case of pervaporation for the extraction of volatile organic compounds through organophilic membranes, especially at low feed temperature (about 300 K), the influence of the downstream pressure cannot be neglected. A contribution to the study of the operating parameters on the vapour side in a pilot plant — from the membrane to the condenser — to the overall mass transfer is presented.

A “convection-diffusion” model has been established to calculate the partial pressure gradients in the vapour phase up to the downstream face of the membrane. This equation has been combined with a relation for the mass transfer inside the membrane with a driving force expressed as a difference in fugacities.

The partial permeate pressures and the pervaporate fluxes obtained first with a pure compound (water) and secondly with binary mixtures (water-ethanol) pervaporated through membranes of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on a pilot plant scale are well predicted by the model. Moreover, on the permeate side, the effects of unavoidable non-condensable gases, of the condenser temperature and of the distance between the module and the condenser on the flux and on the selectivity have been established for different total permeate pressures (300–3000 Pa). At high pressure, the pervaporation selectivity towards ethanol exhibits a minimum value as a function of the permeate circuit design.     

Exergy analysis of a reverse osmosis desalination plant in California

The exergy analysis of a 7250 m³/d reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant in California was conducted by using actual plant operation data, and an alternative design was investigated to improve its performance. The RO plant is described in detail, and the exergies across the major components of the plant are calculated and illustrated using exergy flow diagrams in an attempt to assess the exergy destruction distribution. The primary locations of exergy destruction were the membrane modules in which the saline water is separated into the brine and the permeate, and the throttling valves where the pressure of liquid is reduced, pressure drops through various process components, and the mixing chamber where the permeate and blend are mixed. The largest exergy destruction occurred in the membrane modules, and this amounted to 74.07% of the total exergy input. The smallest exergy destruction occurred in the mixing chamber. The mixing accounted for 0.67% of the total exergy input and presents a relatively small fraction. The second law of efficiency of the plant was calculated to be 4.3%, which seems to be low. The analysis of the alternative design was based on the exergy analysis. It is shown that the second law of efficiency can be increased to 4.9% by introducing a pressure exchanger with two throttling valves on the brine stream, and this saved 19.8 kW electricity by reducing the pumping power of the incoming saline water.     

矿井水脱盐过程中卷式反渗透膜性能的数值模拟研究

为了更好地研究矿井水中无机盐组分对于反渗透过程产水、结垢及脱盐效果的影响,以内蒙古某煤矿矿井水水质组分作为进水水质条件,采用计算流体力学（CFD）模拟单支商用标准8寸卷式反渗透膜元件（陶氏BW30-400）内部的传质以及局部浓差极化的分布,预测实际运行情况下微溶盐结垢的风险。进水通道采用以阿基米德螺旋曲线为卷制轨迹的几何模型。无机盐的混盐作用通过混盐渗透压模型模拟。从全尺度卷式反渗透膜元件的模拟结果可以看出,卷式反渗透膜内的水流主要以轴向流速为主,沿切向阿基米德螺旋线的流速较低,对整体盐度分布的影响较小（<1%）,可以忽略不计,在后续模拟中采用简化模拟单元或几何模型或网格。在模拟操作条件下,卷式膜元件的浓水网产生的水头损失占整体水头损失约86%,为卷式膜元件中的主要水头损失来源。在没有安装浓水网的进水流道中最高Na₂SO₄浓度位于元件浓水出口处,高达3594 mg/L,约为有浓水网情况下的1.8倍。而且有浓水网的进水流道内,浓差极化现象主要发生在浓水网背水侧局部区域,影响范围较小。该模型模拟得到的产水量与实测产水量做对比,误差小于5%,同时模拟结果也接近ROSA9.1模拟数据（误差<4.4%）,因此可以对卷式反渗透膜的无机盐脱盐过程进行较精确的模拟仿真。与商业设计软件如ROSA（反渗透系统分析）相比,其只提供产水和浓水中的盐浓度信息,本文开发的模型可以提供浓度极化的特征信息,加深了对卷式反渗透膜在不同位置的潜在结垢风险的理解。     

APPLICATION OF GASndashLIQUID TWO-PHASE CROSS-FLOW FILTRATION TO PILOT-SCALE METHANE FERMENTATION

As part of a national project, “Aqua-Renaissance '90,” by the MITI, a pilot-scale evaluation of membrane-enhanced anaerobic fermentation, has progressed for the wastewater from a pulp and paper mill. A novel membrane filtration system was newly proposed with the aim of saving energy. That is, a gas-liquid two-phase cross-flow filtration which was generated with liquid circulation by an air-lift pump effect, was combined in the anaerobic bioreactor. It was confirmed that the membrane filtration not only offered very stable and large permeate flux, but enhanced the processing efficiency by retaining the microorganisms in the bioreactor. Furthermore, the power consumption per unit permeate volume in the membrane system of 1.78 kWh/m³ was achieved. which was a very highperformance result from the viewpoint of saving energy, as compared with 3ndash;5 kWh/m³ of conventional liquid single-phase cross-flow filtration.     

Application of microfiltration and ultrafiltration processes to cork processing wastewaters and assessment of the membrane fouling

The filtration of wastewaters generated in the cork industrial process is investigated by using three membranes in tangential filtration laboratory equipment. The three membranes used were two microfiltration membranes with pores sizes of 0.65 and 0.1 μm (DUR-0.65 and DUR-0.1 membranes), and a ultrafiltration membrane with a molecular weight cut-off of 300 kDa (BIO-300K membrane). The water hydraulic permeability was determined for each membrane (values of 860, 248 and 769 L h⁻¹ m⁻² bar⁻¹ were found), and the influence on the permeate flux of the main operating variables, such as transmembrane pressure, feed flow rate, temperature and nature of the membranes, was established. The effectiveness of the different membranes and operating conditions was evaluated by determining the removal obtained for several parameters which measure the global pollutant content of the effluent: COD, absorbance at 254 nm, tannic content, color and ellagic acid, which is selected as a major model pollutant among the different organic compounds present in this wastewater. The values of the corresponding retention coefficients depended on the operating conditions, but in all cases were in the sequence: ellagic acid and color > absorbance at 254 nm > tannic content > COD. Globally, the higher removals were obtained for the BIO-300K membrane at 20 °C, with Q_F = 5.3 L h⁻¹ and TMP = 1.8 bar. Finally, the fouling of the membranes was assessed, and the corresponding mechanism for each membrane was established by fitting the experimental data to various filtration fouling models reported in the literature.     

PACl: A simulation of the change in Al concentration and Al solubility in RO

Polyaluminium chloride (coagulant) is a very complex compound. The change in the ratio HCO₃/CO₂ during coagulation cause a change in pH in the subsequent RO unit (because CO₂ is not rejected by the RO membrane), and it was found that this change is constant for any given recovery, e.g. at 75% recovery, the pH change between the RO feed water and concentrate water is 0.6. The simulation of aluminium solubility and concentration along RO systems were performed assuming the presence of three aluminium species, Al₁₃⁷⁺, Al(OH)₄⁻, Al(OH)²⁺. The simulation of aluminium solubility was performed at two temperatures, 20°C to represent the summer period and 5°C to represent the winter period. Results showed that for winter (5°C) an RO feed water pH of at least 7.2 and for warm weather (20°C), a feed water pH of at least 6.7 are required respectively, to avoid scaling of aluminium on the RO membranes.

In conclusion, theoretical simulation of aluminium solubility and results of deposition factor showed that aluminium more than likely plays a role in fouling of the RO membranes and could be a reason for the frequent cleaning.     

Treatment of Fumaric Acid Wastewater Using Integrated Process of Hollow-Fiber Supported Liquid Membrane-Strip Dispersion with Reverse Osmosis

In this paper, the integrated process of series connected hollow-fiber supported liquid membrane-strip dispersion (HFSLM-SD) with reverse osmosis (RO) was designed and used to recover fumaric acid (FA) from waste effluents and treat FA wastewater. The results showed that FA could be almost completely recovered by this integrated process, and TOC of wastewater finally decreased to the environment acceptable level. In addition, the continuous operation of wastewater treatment was implemented by the integrated process. After FA wastewater was extracted by six series connected HFSLM-SD modules, its TOC decreased from 35625 mg/L to 1000 mg/L, and the TOC removal rate reached 97.17%. Then the effluent from HFSLM-SD was further treated by RO, and TOC of permeate in RO was below 100 mg/L. The total TOC removal rate of the integrated process was as high as 99.7%. Furthermore, the effect of the osmotic pressure of RO process on TOC in the feed was obtained. The investigation of RO membrane fouling revealed that washing process was necessary because of the serious fouling in RO system.     

Synthesis, properties and application of high conductive LaCrO3-based ceramic materials

The synthesis of LaCrO₃ and LaCrO₃-based materials by the hydrothermal method and in air has been investigated. In respect to the synthesized products, the structure and a number of physical properties, such as electrical and magnetic properties, are discussed. The authors utilized the doped LaCrO₃ material as various “conducting leads” for ZrO₂-based heating elements to substitute the expensive Pt-Rh wire. The working temperature of these elements can be up to 2000–2100°C in oxidizing atmosphere.     

Palladium–sulfated zirconium pillared montmorillonite: Catalytic evaluation in light naphtha hydroisomerization reaction

The present work is an evaluation of 1 wt.% Pd/sulfated zirconium pillared montmorillonite catalyst in the hydroisomerization reaction of two fractions of light naphtha composed mainly of C₅ and C₆ paraffins (feeds 1 and 2). Catalyst activity test was carried out in a fixed-bed flow reactor at reaction temperature of 300 °C, under atmospheric hydrogen pressure and weight hourly space velocity of 0.825 h⁻¹.

The reaction products showed high isomer and cyclane selectivity. Monobranched and multibranched isomers were formed as well as C5 and C6 cyclane products. After the catalytic reaction, the total amount of benzene and cyclohexane decreased by 30% for the “feed 1” and by 40% for the “feed 2” leading to methylcyclopentane formation in the products. A long-term performance test catalyst for the two light naphtha fractions was also performed and we observed an improving of the research octane number (RON) by 15–17 for, respectively, feeds 1 and 2.     

Effective scale control for seawater RO operating with high feed water pH and temperature

An effective scale control program for seawater RO is widely recognized as an important factor in ensuring trouble free and cost effective operation. This is especially important under the high feed water pH and temperature conditions found in Southern Europe and Middle East.

In addition, regulatory issues concerning maximum acceptable boron levels in drinking and irrigation water necessitate the growing need to operate plants at higher feed water pH. Operating at increased pH increases boron rejection but also increases the scaling tendencies of the water. This can lead to calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide precipitation in the membranes.

A complete scale control program needs to control calcite and brucite saturation at the maximum operating reject pH and temperature. Antiscalant chemistry, optimum dose rate as well as accurate monitoring and control of the scale inhibitor are key factors in long-term cost effective “scale free” operation.

This paper details the operating strategies and scale control issues related to both single and two pass seawater RO plants operating at elevated feed water pH and temperature.     

Treatment of tanning effluent using nanofiltration followed by reverse osmosis

An investigation on the recovery of chromium from the effluent of a chrome-tanning bath has been performed using nanofiltration (NF) followed by reverse osmosis (RO). The experiments are conducted using a rectangular cross flow cell under laminar and turbulent regimes. Significant flux enhancement is achieved using thin wires as turbulent promoters. The performance criteria are evaluated in terms of the concentration of chromium, COD, BOD, TDS, TS, pH, and conductivity of the permeate. The effects of different operating parameters on permeate flux and observed retention of chromium are evaluated experimentally. The retention of chromium is found to be 91–98% for NF and 98.8–99.7% for RO for the experimental conditions of this study. Concentrations of chromium and COD of the final permeate are well within the permissible limits.     

Effect of Cross-flow Velocity on the Critical Flux of Ceramic Membrane Filtration as a Pre-treatment for Seawater Desalination

Pre-treatment, which supplies a stable, high-quality feed for reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, is a critical step for successful operation in a seawater reverse osmosis plant. In this study, ceramic membrane systems were employed as pre-treatment for seawater desalination. A laboratory experiment was performed to investigate the effect of the cross-flow velocity on the critical flux and consequently to optimize the permeate flux. Then a pilot test was performed to investigate the long-term performance. The result shows that there is no significant effect of the cross-flow velocity on the critical flux when the cross-flow velocity varies in laminar flow region only or in turbulent flow region only, but the effect is distinct when the cross-flow velocity varies in the transition region. The membrane fouling is slight at the permeate flux of 150 L穖^-2穐^-1 and the system is stable, producing a high-quality feed (the turbidity and silt density index are less than 0.1 NTU and 3.0, respectively) for RO to run for 2922.4 h without chemical cleaning. Thus the ceramic membranes are suitable to filtrate seawater as the pre-treatment for RO.     

Non-conventional treatment of treated municipal wastewater for reverse osmosis

High-quality potable water can be produced at a reasonable cost if reverse osmosis (RO) technology is applied to renovate secondary/tertiary urban wastewater effluent. Such implementation would yield many advantages to Kuwait, namely: satisfying the increasing agricultural, industrial and domestic demands for good quality water that is free from viruses and bacteria and other microbials present preserving the natural strategic water resources; reducing the environmental pollution resulting from the direct discharge of secondary/tertiary municipal effluents to the sea; and meeting unexpected emergency cases of shortages in freshwater produced from the desalination of seawater for certain domestic applications. The main aims of this work are to assess the technical viability and the economic feasibility of implementing RO technology to renovate Kuwaiti wastewater treated effluent. The paper describes the design of pretreatment, experimental set-up, results, and data analysis of desalinating municipal wastewater by RO. The results indicate that wastewater can be treated to produce an excellent permeate quality almost devoid from salts and pollutants.     

Influence of filtration conditions on the performance of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes in dairy wastewater treatment

Filtration performance and fouling of nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in the treatment of dairy industry wastewater were investigated. Two series of experiments were performed. The first one involved a NF membrane (TFC-S) for treating the chemical-biological treatment plant effluents. The second one used a RO membrane (TFC-HR) for treating the original effluents from the dairy industry. The permeate flux was higher at higher transmembrane pressures and higher feed flowrates. The curves of permeate flux exhibited a slower increase while the feed flowrate decreased and the pressure increased. Membrane fouling resulted in permeate flux decline with increasing the feed COD concentration. Furthermore, the flux decline due to the COD increase was found higher at higher pressures for both NF and RO membranes.     

Optimization of the Design and Operation of Seawater RO Desalination Plants

Abstract

In this work a straightforward procedure for the optimum design and operation of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants is being proposed. The analysis is based on analytical equations for the permeate flow rate and quality and the salt flow rate. The mathematical model and the developed software can predict the brine and permeate characteristics for any SWRO plant regardless of the number of the membrane modules in the pressure vessels. The results of the developed software were verified by experimental data from a 280 m³/d RO plant, with 8″ membrane module made by FilmTec, and they were compared with the predictions made by ROSA 6.0 software. An excellent agreement was observed between the prediction of the suggested model and the experimental data. The model can be applied in any type of membrane modules as long as the geometry and the membrane characteristics are known.

Different operating conditions were tested and an effort was made for the optimum design and operation of the plant so that the minimum specific energy consumption can be achieved. It is believed that the analytical model presented in this work is a very useful tool not only because of its accuracy for the SWRO plant design and operation but also because of its simplicity.