DESALINATION

ELSEVIER Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

Membrane pretreatment of reverse osmosis Long term experience on difficult waters

Bruce Durham
Memcor Ltd., Derby Road, Wirksworth, Derbyshire DE4 4BG, UK. Tel.: +44-1629-823811, Fax: +44-1629-825169

Received 18 February 1997; accepted 24 February 1997

Abstract

The shortage of fresh water supplies is one of the main threats to sustainable development. Membrane technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO) have been used for over twenty years to treat sea water (SWRO) and waste waters. The applications have been limited due to the sensitivity of RO membranes to fouling and the ability of conventional pretreatment technologies. Pretreatment represents a real problem in the SWRO process. It represents 22.97% of the total product water costs at the Doha Reverse Osmosis Plant producing 4546 m3/d [1]. The development of backwashing continuous microfiltration (CMF) membranes enables RO to desalinate variable feed waters including turbid waste waters. Completed projects include the desalination and reuse of brackish secondary sewage and eutrophic surface water for industry and irrigation. These installations have resulted in a 40% reduction in the sizing of the RO plant installed, a 60-90% reduction in chemical used and effluent costs for the conventional deionisers, as well as solving local environmental issues through the reduction in potable water use and waste discharge.
Keywords: Membranes; Pretrealment; Reverse osmosis

I. Introduction

The global water crisis affects over 50 countries and yet water is seldom reused. The concept of installing "Kidneys for Cities" was p r o m o t e d as a Best Practice sustainable solution at the UN Habitat II conference in Istanbul in 1996. L o n g term operating experience proves the viability of microfiltration pretreatment of RO for desalination of poor quality waters that are variable in

loading, contain large amounts of suspended solids including algae and plankton blooms. The global demand for potable water is out o f balance and expanding at a frightening rate especially when you consider that 50% of the world's population live in cities, only 10% of potable water is used for drinking and the world's population is forecast to double in the next 50 years. Through the development over the last 15 years of 'enabling' technologies the use of

Presented at the International Symposium on Pretreatment of Feedwater for Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plants, March 31 - April 2, 1997, Kuwait 0011-9164/97/$17.00 Copyright 1997 Publishedby Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Pll SO011-9164(97)00083-0

50

B. Durham / Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

2. Memcor continuous microfiltration

poor quality water resources is now not only possible but has also been widely demonstrated to be reliable and safe as well as economically justified. Memcor has been at the forefront of such developments and has proven the ability of continuous microfiltration in the recovery of primary and secondary sewage, industrial waste waters and surface waters with turbidities rising to 700 NTU for direct use or for further treatment with reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ion exchange and other downstream processes. Extensive use of poor quality water resources (such as contaminated/turbid waters and sewage), hitherto considered impractical, is rapidly becoming a necessity in order to secure resources for the future. The treatment of such water resources for potable supplies, for aquifer recharge, and for direct use in industry offers the benefits of cost savings through avoiding the need to install unnecessary new potable and sewerage infrastructure. In addition, planning cycles can be significantly shortened if marginal water sources or sewage are used as a water feedstock for water capacity expansions. Many traditional water treatment technologies are designed to operate under steady-state conditions. Rapid changes in suspended or dissolved solids loading, a change in the nature of the solids from fine inorganic particles to algae create havoc making the design engineers and operators job very difficult. Sources containing these problems, such as open sea water intakes, are complex and variable waters to treat, and can also include lake, river or waste waters. The pretreatment of RO systems is perhaps the most critical part of a system design which when incorrect has resulted in terminal failure of RO membranes from irreversible fouling. Microfiltration pretreatment produces a stable feed water for RO. There are many systems installed that have overcome the challenge of maintaining production and being able to reliably treat high and variable dirt loads at a competitive
cost.

(CMF) CMF is a barrier filtration technology which provides high quality treated water and primary disinfection via an integrity-testable microporous membrane. There are two key elements to the third generation CMF process - the 0.2 ~tm pore size membranes and Memcor's patented air backwash system. The membranes are hollow fibre with an internal d i a m e t e r of approximately 0.3 mm. They are assembled into serviceable sub-modules each containing up to 20,000 metres of fibre length. Filtration takes place from outside to inside and in dead end mode ("direct filtration"). This, coupled with the unique air backwashing process, offers a number of benefits: - V e r y high f e e d solids can be accommodated with no effect on the system p e r f o r m a n c e other than an automatic change in the frequency of the backwash. - As a result, a consistent filtrate flowrate and quality is continuously sustained, with an automatic process, irrespective of the quality of the feed water (SDI<3, turbidity <0.2, 5-6 log reduction in bacteria). - Prechlorination is not required to maintain flux rates. This removes the problem of d e c h l o r i n a t i o n to p r o t e c t the RO membranes. - Energy consumption is very low - typically 0.15-0.25 kWh/m 3 of treated water. Even with several hundred mg/1 of feed TSS cross-flow is not required. - The air backwash means that no filtrate is required for backwashing, and the system need therefore only be sized for the demand flow. This also removes the possibility of recontaminating filtrate via the backwash process. -The highly effective compressed air backwashing is much more effective than the conventional liquid backwashing at removing contaminants due to high energy level and good distribution. It also offers the added benefit of effectively disinfecting

B. Durham /Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

51

the membrane, preventing grow-through and h e n c e avoiding the need for prechlorination of the backwash liquor which is normally a prerequisite of conventional liquid backwashing systems. The Memcor (air) backwash was the most singularly effective means of controlling fouling [2] during the Orange County Water District, Water Factory 21 membrane pretreatment evaluation from June 93 to October 95. The CMF process offers a built-in fullyautomatic integrity testing process with the ability to measure bacterial log reduction value to a sensitivity of 6 logs. This integrity test utilises the existing air backwash facility and the membrane bubble point and is a feature unique to microfiltration i.e. the process cannot be used with ultrafiltration because of the very high pressure which would be required for the test. It is a highly reliable Quality Assurance measure for the CMF plant and provides security and peace of mind for operators of large scale plant such as RO pretreatment. It must be remembered that particle counting is a less reliable method of checking system integrity and corresponding filtrate quality and should only be treated as a final Quality Control check of filtrate quality. Recent independent studies demonstrated that the integrity test detected a 0.6 mm hole intentionally punched in one of 22,400 fibres (20 m 2) [3]. This level of sensitivity is much higher than particle size counting. Following the automatic membrane test, individual membrane sub-modules detected as having a degree of integrity loss can be easily isolated using valves built into the CMF Block manifold system. Isolated modules can then be repaired and returned to service thus dramatically extending the service life, which is now 5 years, depending upon the application. Existing operating plant using the M e m c o r M10 system have already demonstrated a life in excess of 5 years on highly flashy surface waters. Modules are manifolded into CMF Units of 90 modules and these Units are combined

into trains to meet the overall flow requirements which range from small industrial plants producing 20 m3/d to large municipal plants. The CMF system is fully automatic, has self diagnostic data logging for unmanned remote operation and Memcor has developed a highly sophisticated design, as well as process optimisation tools to ensure that the plant continues to operate at maximum efficiency and provide high quality performance throughout its service life. Cleaning is an automatic in-line process and requires very low usage of chemicals since cleaning chemicals are automatically reused 5 - 2 0 times ( d e p e n d i n g upon application). The following projects highlight some of the operating e x p e r i e n c e s on large installations.

3. Eraring Power Station project

The sewage reuse project at Eraring is a good example of two major utilities, Pacific Power and Hunter Water Corporation, working together to the benefit of the environment and the community on a cost effective project. Eraring Power Station is one of the largest in Australia. This 4 660 MW coal fired station provides 25% of the power to the state of New South Wales. It was constructed in 1980 at a cost of A$ 2 billion. The power station has a current life of 30 years and, until recently, consumed up to 4 megalitres per day (mlpd), 168 m3/h of potable water. The power station is located on the shore of Lake Macquarie, a tidal saline lake near the coast and approximately one hour from Sydney. This is an area of rapid development. Hunter Water Corporation (HWC) are the water and waste water utility supplying the power station. The 4 mlpd of potable water needed by the power station is equivalent to 1 years growth in the potable water demand to the local community and is equivalent to the water supply to 25,000 homes. HWC were

52
Edgeworth STP

B. Durham/Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

Toronto
STP
!

To ocean discharge

-.~

i=

ERARING POWER STATION

Belmont Extended Ocean Outfall

Hunter Sewage Project Sewer west side of Lake Macquarie CREEK STP
Build a16,000 EP STP at Dora Creek Ouffall under Lake Macquarie to Belmont

Reuse project will

Delay extended ouffall for 15 years Save Hunter Water Corp and State Government $5 million Lake Macquarie

Fig. 1. Pacific Power Sewage Reuse project. 16,000 EP STP = 16,000 equivalent population sewage treatment plant.

Table 1 Issue Options, solution and benefits

Potable water shortage resulting in occasional water supply problems Discharge of sewage into Lake Macquarie causing nutrient enrichment

Build a new dam and increase the size of the distribution system or reduce potable water demand Build Dora Creek sewage works and either feed effluent to the power station or feed a new 11.4 km pipeline to connect to the ocean ouffall and expand potable supply at a combined cost of over A$ 5 M. Low cost purification of sewage (including under storm flow conditions) (saving of A$ 800,000/y by 2001)

Rising water and chemical costs for Pacific Power boiler feed at 168 m3/la (potable water costs A$ 900,000/y)

planning the construction of a new sewage pipeline 11.4 km long to connect to the existing pipeline discharging to the ocean at Belmont. The opportunity to reuse sewage and postpone this investment was considered by Pacific Power.

The project consisted of connecting the outlet from the Dora Creek sewage treatmentworks to a n e w m e m b r a n e t r e a t m e n t s y s t e m incorporating microfiltration and reverse osmosis. The treated s e w a g e is then used

B. Durham / Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

53

instead of potable water for boiler feed, cooling water, dust suppression and fly ash handling. This solution resulted in major savings to all concerned including the environment and the local community. A number of issues arose that led to the conception of this innovative project (Table 1). Pacific Power, with support from Hunter Water Corporation undertook an environmental assessment and cost benefit analysis. Pacific Power estimated an initial saving of A$ 700,000 per annum from reduced potable water use. The study justified a project cost of A$ 4.2 million including detailed design, manufacture, supply and civils with a payback period for Pacific Power Company of 7-8 years. This in turn allowed Hunter Water to defer the following projects:
D

4. P r o c e s s d e s i g n

11.4 km sewage pipeline at A$ 2.4 m. Expanded potable distribution system at A$ 2.6 m.

This innovative approach produced a winning solution for Pacific Power, Hunter Water, the environment and the local community. This project enabled the Power Station to move to zero discharge. The existing potable water treatment plant consumed over A$ 160,000 of sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide each year with an ever increasing cost of regeneration of the deionisers being used to remove all the dissolved salts from potable water to protect the boilers. Pacific Power found a solution that could meet the following criteria: 'Clean' solution Simple process Economically attractive Almost chemical free Modular design for future expansion Fully automatic, self diagnostic controls - Small footprint - Proven reliable technology - Local technical support.

Pacific Power selected a Memcor membrane treatment system using CMF as pretreatment to reverse osmosis. After the planning and approval stages the project took 36 weeks to start up operation after the order was placed. This 2-stage membrane system has been in operation from March 1995 producing 63 m3/h with a planned expansion to 168 m3/h. Effluent from Dora Creek Sewage Treatment plant flows under gravity from a 8,000 m 3 elevated tank through a 500 mm (20 inches) LDPE pipeline, to the suction of 3 100% centrifugal pumps (37 kW). The pumps deliver the feedwater via a single inline motorised self cleaning strainer (0.5 mm apertures) to the two Memcor 90M10C CMF units. SDI of water is consistently reduced to 1.5 allowing RO membranes to be operated at approximately 40% higher flux than is possible with a pretreatment based on the conventional lime coagulation/sedimentation/ filtration process. Filtrate from the CMF units is dosed with sodium hypochlorite, for downstream control of biological growth. Sulphuric acid is also dosed to reduce pH and minimise hydrolysis of the cellulose acetate RO membranes. Microfiltered water is drawn from the storage tank by 3 x 50% centrifugal pumps (15 kW), dosed with antiscalant and passed through a 5 micron Filterite disposable cartridge guard filter for feed to the RO plant. Two x 50% multistage centrifugal pumps (150 kW) "drive" the RO plant. The RO system comprises two trains (2 x 50%), each with two stages - the first stage comprising 6 RO pressure vessels and the second stage comprising 3 (6:3 array). Each pressure vessel houses seven RO membrane elements. The membrane elements themselves are 8.5 in diameter x 40 inches long cellulose acetate membranes rated at 98% salt rejection. Salts and organics are rejected by the RO membrane, allowing only water to pass through. Permeate (treated water) which is

54

B. Durham /Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

virtually free of all salts and micro-organisms, is piped to a degasser tower to increase pH by flashing off CO2 and is then stored in a 60 m 3 treated water tank. The treated water has a very low total dissolved solids (TDS) and is fed preferentially to the demineraliser plant to reduce the operating cost by using less regenerant chemicals, with the balance of the water used for non-potable water applications around the power plant. The RO concentrate (reject or brine) passes, via the demineraliser plant wastewater sump, to the station ash dam. Backwash from the CMF plant is sent to Pacific Power's on-site wastewater treatment facility and then recycled back to the feed receiving tank.

6. CMF operating parameters

Table 3 CMF operating parameters Capacity Influent source Operating: 3.5 mlpd (0.9 mgpd) Peak: 5.2 mlpd (1.35 mgpd) Secondary effluent from a cyclic activated sludge process Peak 50/50 BOD5/solids (20/30 mg/1 average) (sea water ingress) Temperature 15 to 28C Automatic every 24 hours at average pressure decay of 0.27 psi/min 15 to 60 minutes self regulating dependent upon raw water turbidity and temperature Design: 14 days. Actual every 1000 h operation in normal conditions Approximately 10% of feed volume (recovered and reused)

Integrity test

Backwash interval

Clean in place

5. Plant specifications
Table 2 Plant specifications

Backwash volume

Microfiltration CMF membrane CMF recovery Reverse osmosis

RO membrane

RO recovery CMF backwash system Influent pumps RO booster pumps High pressure pumps Control system

2 x 90M10C (90 modules per unit) Polypropylene, 0.2 micron, hollow fibre 90% 6:3 array (i.e. vessels/train) 2 x 50% Trains Output 2.5 mlpd upgradable to 3.7 Cellulose acetate, 7 off 8.5 inch x 40 inch elements per vessel 80% Compressed air at 7 bar 3 x 100% centrifugal 37 kW 3 x 50% centrifugal 15 kW 2 x 50% multistage centrifugal 150 kW Supervisory SCADA with two slave PLC's and dedicated controllers for the RO and CMF sections of the plant

7. RO operating performance
The projected treated water quality from a feed salinity of up to 721 mg/1 is shown in Table 4.

Table 4 RO permeate quality (in mg/1) Parameter Chloride Sulphate Silica Sodium Magnesium Calcium Year 0 17 1.2 1.4 9.5 0.2 0.3 Year I 20 1.43 1.8 11.4 0.2 0.3 Year 2 25 1.8 2.1 14.3 0.2 0.4 Year 3 32 2.2 2.6 17.8 0.3 0.5

B. Durham / Desalination I10 (1997) 49-58

Potable w a t e r
Hunter Water Corp re~alned for showers and dnnklng

55

Plant process water

Auxllia~ cooling. washdown, fire 'j ser~ces, astl plant, etc.
unite

CMF Receiving tank

Chlorine

RO unit,,

Existlng domestic water ring main

Oegaeeer

~.:. ~

n : . :

SecondaL, y sewage
from

Dora

. i,i

el .

Creek

STP

II

I1 "

water

D Solids disposal I STP i CMF backwash

RO reject to aah dam

Preference

given to demin plant a s

reclaimed

water lower in
TDS

To boilers

Fig. 2. Eraring water reclamation plant.

8. O v e r a l l p l a n t performance
Table 5 Overall plant performance Parameter Suspended solids, mg/l Turbidity, NTU Silt Density Index Influent Effluent <1 <0.1 <3 <1 <5 <1

30 to 50 approx. 50 Too high to measure Particles count >104 BOD5, mg/l 20 to 50 Faecal coliforms, cfu/100 ml <106

- The treated water (permeate) from the RO plant has a total dissolved solids (TDS) of <40 mg/1 when treating secondary sewage of 500-1500 mg/1 TDS. The existing deioniser capacity has been increased by more than 3 fold as a result of the membrane pretreatment resulting in over A$150,000 savings per annum in chemical
COSTS.

The efficiency of the microfiltration pretreatment has been proven by the stable performance of the RO membranes. During the first years of operation the RO plant has operated over 6000 h and has never been cleaned. Normalised flow from the plant has d r o p p e d by o n l y 6 - 8 % . The C M F pretreatment has also protected the cartridge filters so that they are only changed every three months during routine preventative maintenance rather than due to pressure drop increase, (a six month life may be possible). The system provides the following benefits:

- The membrane system removes bacteria and viruses for health risk minimisation and to protect the downstream equipment from biofouling. - RO permeate can be used directly for washdown, dust suppression and gland seal, with no health risks. -The compact size of the installation enabled an existing building to be used. - The total system is fully automatic, has self diagnostic data logging and operated through the SCADA system. - Membrane integrity tests automatically take place dally. Clean in Place (CIP) frequency is determined automatically by the control system. All cleaning c h e m i c a l s are recovered and reused automatically on the microfiltration system.

56

B. Durham /Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

- All effluents from the system are recycled or used for dust suppression. A similar system treating algae-laden surface water for the boiler feed to a Power Station is installed near Budapest, Hungary. This installation also demonstrates the benefits of "enabling microfiltration" technology.

- fully automatic operation -guaranteed treated water quality with varying and poor raw water quality - two stage membrane process (CMF & RO) - significantly increased deioniser capacity with subsequent reduction in c h e m i c a l regenerant costs.

9. V~rtesi Power Plant Co. Bokod Power Station 235 MW, Oroszl~iny, Hungary
Algae laden brackish lake water is a difficult water to treat for high pressure boiler feed compared with valuable potable water. Once again, RO could not easily be applied to treat this water source for use in the power station and CMF was used to enable the application of RO. Over the last ten years the quality of the cooling lake has deteriorated significantly. The dissolved salt content has increased to 6,000 mg/1 total dissolved solids (TDS) and the algae content during bloom periods has increased to 225 x 106 counts per litre and total suspended solids levels up to 100 mg/l. Due to these changes the chemical usage of the existing deioniser at the power plant increased dramatically, the period between regeneration became very short and the operation became troublesome. This resulted in significant labour and maintenance costs to continuously achieve the required water quality. The objective of the project was to select the best technical solution that would lower the operating costs, produce a reliable and significantly higher water quality to protect the existing ion exchange plant from the problems caused by the variable feed water quality. They also needed to reduce labour demand and provide a more convenient operation. Reverse osmosis with microfiltration pretreatment was selected as offering the best and most economically viable technical solution with the following benefits: - low chemical consumption - low power consumption

10. CMF system

The system design is similar to the Eraring project and includes self-cleaning screens to remove large suspended solids, at the inlet to a raw water feed tank. Two 36M10C Continuous Microfiltration (CMF) units, with duty/standby feed pumps, valves, instruments and membrane modules, produce a flow rate of 44 m3/h in duty/standby mode or 88 m3/h in parallel mode. The filtrate produced has a silt density index (SDI) of less than 3 with particle removal down to 0.2 micron in size. The system includes an automatic compressed air backwash with sequence every 30 minutes to remove the suspended solids, and is cleaned using a clean-in-place (CIP) system. The backwash frequency is variable and is determined automatically depending on the raw water quality. The CMF product water is free of bacteria and suspended solids. This is an important benefit in comparison with the conventional pretreatment systems that r e m o v e s u s p e n d e d solids d o w n to approximately 20 g m (micron) and do not reduce the bacterial loading onto the RO plant. The CMF system produces a continuous supply of high quality product water. The Bokod power plant uses Memcor's latest high capacity M10C submodules which have a low energy requirement through operating in "dead end" mode at 1.5 bar operating pressure. This compact design gives the benefits of low operating and capital costs, particularly in large flow applications. The control panel contains a PLC fitted with a data panel graphical user interface to

B. Durham /Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

57

allow the plant operators to collect and review plant data and control the system.

11. R e v e r s e o s m o s i s s y s t e m

The pretreated water is fed to the low pressure RO feed booster pump equipment through two 5 ~tm polypropylene pre-fllter cartridges (in stainless steel housings). Sulphuric acid and anti-scalant are then dosed, the acid is to adjust the feed water pH to 7, and the anti-scaling agent to prevent scale formation on the surface of the membranes. The booster pumps supply the multi-stage centrifugal high pressure pumps, which provide the necessary operating pressure of 47-48 bar. The reverse osmosis system supplied by Zenon Systems KFT Tatabanya Hungary, includes two LF 26000 units in parallel, each with a capacity of 26 m a/h. The RO membranes are contained in six glass fibre reinforced plastic pressure vessels and each pressure vessel contains six sea water high salt retention thin film membranes (SWHR). Unlike the CMF system which operates in "dead-end" mode, the RO system operates in "cross-flow" mode. The pretreated feed water enters the RO pressure vessels at one end, and flows along one side of the membrane. Water passes through the membrane to produce treated water (permeate) and residual water (concentrate) flows out of the module. The volume of concentrate produced is about 17-18 m3/h per unit. The RO system has a recovery rate of 6070 per cent. This is the recovery limit at which the RO system can be operated to optimise the use of anti-scaling agent. The membranes are sea-water type, polyamide, spiral wound, high salt retention thin film composite membranes. They have a typical TDS rejection of 99.5 per cent, and a minimum rejection 99.2 per cent at standard test conditions of 32,000 ppm NaC1, 800 psi pressure and 25C temperature. The RO

system has a common CIP tank for cleaning and sanitisation. The membranes are sanitised every 4-8 weeks and also following downtime periods of 72 hours. The sanitising and cleaning operations use low pressure and high flowrate through the pressure vessels, while normal process uses high pressure and lower flowrate. The RO system and associated dosing and CIP equipment is PLC controlled. The Siemens control system incorporates a Master Control Centre with 6 independent PLC's which provide maximum operational security and are monitored from the central PLC. The treated water has a conductivity of 1015 ~ts/cm. Since the start up of this plant in May 1994 the downstream ion exchange operating costs have reduced by 50%. The key benefits are: - Membrane technology uses simple physical separation with minimal chemical consumption - Chemical usage has reduced by 90% - Effluent values have been reduced proportionately -Operating and emergency maintenance labour has been dramatically reduced - Power consumption was reduced - Payback period will be under 4 years.

12. C o n c l u s i o n s

- 'Enabling' technologies such as Continuous Microfiltration are allowing reverse osmosis technology to treat previously impractical source waters as microflltration allows RO feedwater quality to be easily controlled and consistent. - The reuse of secondary sewage can be considered as an economic alternative and is easier to treat than eutrophic surface water. - Reverse osmosis capital and operating costs continue to reduce. Microfiltration allows the membrane inventory of an RO plant to be reduced by up to 30 to 40%.

58

B. Durham / Desalination 110 (1997) 49-58

References
[1] S. Ebrahim, S. Bou-Hamad, M. Safar, and A. A1Sairafi, Pretreatment for seawater reverse osmosis plants using microfiltration systems, IDA World Congress on Desalination and Water Sciences, Abu Dhabi, November 1995, pp. 230.

[2] G.L. Leslie, W.R. Dunivin, P. Gabillet, S.R. Conklin, W.R. Mills, and R.G. Sudak, Orange County Water District, Fountain Valley, California, Separation Processes Inc., Vista, CA. [3] S.S. Adham, J.G. Jacangelo, and J. Laine, Lowpressure membranes: Assessing integrity, J. AWWA, March 1995.