Fouling characterization of RO membranes after 11  years of operation in a brackish water desalination plant

Ruiz-García, A.; Melián-Martel, N.; Mena, Vicente

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2017.12.046

Cited by 50 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Membrane surface modification has been developed to improve the membrane antifouling properties, by physical or chemical methods like nanomaterial penetration, mixing, coating, grafting, self-assembly, chemical coupling, physical adsorption, and irradiation, etc. [ 32 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].…”

Section: The Main Technical Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress and Perspectives of Desalination in China

Ruan

Wang

et al. 2021

Membranes

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In recent decades, the ever-growing demands for clean water in households and industries have urged researchers to take every possible step to deal with the global water crisis. Seawater desalination has turned out to be the most promising and efficient way to provide clean water. Owing to the advancement of synthetic chemistries and technologies, great success has been achieved in the desalination and utilization of seawater worldwide. China, with the world’s largest population, has pushed the development of desalination and multipurpose utilization of seawater further in respect of materials, technologies and services, etc. This review reports recent progress of desalination technologies accomplished in China, from the viewpoints of facilities and equipment, collaborations, technologies, applications, research abilities, services, and standard systems. Inspired by the Fourteenth Five-year Plan, it also proposes future perspectives of desalination in China.

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Section: The Main Technical Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress and Perspectives of Desalination in China

Ruan

Wang

et al. 2021

Membranes

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“…However the number of publications, which are relevant for desalination fullscale applications, drops to 20 when the search is done with the terms Membrane + Autopsy + Reverse Osmosis + Full-Scale + Desalination (Figure 1). From these, only a few provide information about the layout of the plant and physical and chemical characteristics of the feed water and plant performance (Ruiz-García et al, 2018;Nejati et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical Autopsy of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Module

et al. 2021

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The desalination of seawater using reverse osmosis membranes is an attractive solution to global freshwater scarcity. However, membrane performance is reduced by (bio)fouling. Membrane autopsies are essential for identifying the type of fouling material, and applying corrective measures to minimize membrane fouling. Information from full-scale membrane autopsies guiding improved plant operations is scant in the formal literature. In this case-study, a reverse osmosis membrane from a full-scale seawater desalination plant with a feed channel pressure drop increase of about 218% over the pressure vessel was autopsied. The simultaneous determination of microbial cells, ATP, and total organic carbon (TOC) abundances per membrane area allowed estimating the contributions of biofouling and organic fouling. The abundance of microbial cells determined by flow cytometry (up to 7 × 108 cells/cm2), and ATP (up to 21,000 pg/cm2) as well as TOC (up to 98 μg/cm2) were homogeneously distributed on the membrane. Inorganic fouling was also measured, and followed a similar coverage distribution to that of biofouling. Iron (∼150 μg/cm2, estimated by ICP-MS) was the main inorganic foulant. ATR-FTIR spectra supported that membrane fouling was both organic/biological and inorganic. High-resolution SEM-EDS imaging of cross-sectioned membranes allowed assessing the thickness of the fouling layer (up to 20 μm) and its elemental composition. Imaging results further supported the results of homogeneous fouling coverage. Moreover, imaging revealed both zones with and without compression of the polysulfone membrane layer, suggesting that the stress due to operating pressure was heterogeneous. The procedure for this membrane autopsy provided a reasonable overview of the diverse contributors of fouling and might be a starting point to building a consensus autopsy protocol. Next, it would be valuable to build a RO membrane autopsy database, which can be used as a guidance and diagnostic tool to improve the management and operation of RO desalination plants.

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“…Seawater is widely used in the reverse osmosis desalination plants [1][2][3][4][5][6], multi-stage-flash desalination process [7], circulating cooling water systems, and other water treatment systems [8]. In these processes, seawater is inevitably concentrated by two to four times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crystallization of CaCO3 in Aqueous Solutions with Extremely High Concentrations of NaCl

et al. 2019

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The effect of NaCl at extremely high concentrations from 3.5 to 14 wt. % on the crystallization of CaCO3 was investigated in depth. The static test experiment verified that the Ca2+ retention efficiency (η) of NaCl on CaCO3 scale increased from 31.06% (3.5 wt. %) to 41.56% (14 wt. %). Based on the calculation of supersaturation rations, the high concentration of NaCl could reduce the activity coefficients of [Ca2+] and [CO32−], thus reducing the actual concentration of CaCO3. The CaCO3 deposition rate constants (k) showed that NaCl slowed down the rate of CaCO3 crystallization. The X–ray diffraction (XRD) testing disclosed that the growth of (1 0 4) and (1 1 0) faces from calcite was impeded, while the formation of (1 1 1) face from aragonite was induced by the increasing concentration of NaCl. The inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES) results indicated that Na+ could be doped into CaCO3, leading to the one–dimensional crystal growth. It was further proved that NaCl heightens the efficiency of the typical phosphate inhibitors (2–phosphonobutane–1,2,4–tricarboxylic acid (PBTCA) and 1–hydroxyethane–1,1–diphosphonic acid (HEDP)) on prohibiting the scale of CaCO3.

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Fouling characterization of RO membranes after 11 years of operation in a brackish water desalination plant

Cited by 50 publications

References 22 publications

Progress and Perspectives of Desalination in China

Progress and Perspectives of Desalination in China

Clinical Autopsy of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Module

Crystallization of CaCO3 in Aqueous Solutions with Extremely High Concentrations of NaCl

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