Integration of renewable energy with desalination technologies has emerged as an attractive 10 solution to augment fresh water supply sustainably. Fouling and scaling are still considered as 11 limiting factors in membrane desalination processes. For brackish water treatment, pre-treatment 12 of reverse osmosis (RO) feed water is a key step in designing RO plants avoiding membrane 13 fouling. This study aims to compare at pilot scale the rejection efficiency of RO membranes with 14 multiple pre-treatment options at different water recoveries (30, 35, 40, 45 and 50%) and TDS 15 concentrations (3500, 4000, and 4500 mg/L). Synthetic brackish water was prepared and 16 performance evaluation were carried out using brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) 17 membranes (Filmtec LC-LE-4040 and Hydranautics CPA5-LD-4040) preceded by 5 and 1 µm 18 cartridge filters, 0.02 µm ultra-filtration (UF) membrane, and forward osmosis (FO) membrane 19 using 0.25 M NaCl and MgCl2 as draw solutions (DS). It was revealed that FO membrane with 20 0.25 M MgCl2 used as a draw solution (DS) and Ultra-filtration (UF) membrane followed by 21 Filmtec membrane gave overall 98% rejection but UF facing high fouling potential due to high 22 applied pressure. Use of 5 and 1 µm cartridge filter prior to Filmtec membrane also showed 23 effective results with 95% salt rejection.
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