Limits of High Recovery Inland Desalination: Closed-Circuit Reverse Osmosis – a Viable Option? |
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Authors: | Martin Futterlieb Ibrahim M A ElSherbiny Marc Tuczinski Jens Lipnizki Stefan Panglisch |
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Affiliation: | 1. University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Mechanical Process Engineering and Water Technology, Lotharstraße 1, 47057 Duisburg, Germany;2. IWW Water Centre, Moritzstraße 26, 45476 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany;3. Suez WTS Germany GmbH, Daniel-Goldbach-Straße 17–19, 40880 Ratingen, Germany |
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Abstract: | Cost-efficient operation of inland brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) demands a high recovery. As recovery of BWRO is often limited to scaling, antiscalants (AS) are applied, whose environmental impact is disputed. In this paper, different systems (conventional single- and two-stage plug flow RO (PFRO) and closed-circuit RO (CCRO)) were simulated in various configurations (AS dosing, ion exchange (IEX) pretreatment, elements per vessel) to determine the recovery limiting factor for a hard feed. The novel proposed IEX-CCRO reached the highest recovery without AS dosing. PFRO configurations had lower recoveries, mainly due to hydraulic limitations. Utilizing RO brine reduced both the water demand and salts necessary for IEX regeneration. |
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Keywords: | Closed-circuit reverse osmosis Process simulation Resource recovery Scaling |
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