Reverse Osmosis Desalination

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Focus
Driving Forces Membrane RO Plant

Desalination process Osmosis and reverse osmosis

Operational Principal Advancement in RO Advantages and disadvantages of RO system Environmental effect and mitigation measure Renewable energy in RO system
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Desalination process

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Driving Forces
Pressure Gradient (P):

According to the Driving Forces for transport, membrane processes can be classified as follows:
Electrical potential Gradient (E):

Reverse osmosis Ultrafiltration Microfiltration Nano filtration Vapor permeation Gas permeation Pervaporation
Concentration gradient (C):

Electro dialysis Membrane electrolysis Electro sorption Electro filtration Electrochemical ion exchange
Temperature gradient (T):

Membrane distillation Thermo-osmosis

Dialysis Membrane extraction Supported liquid membrane (SLM) Emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) Non-dispersive solvent extraction
with hollow fiber contactors.

Processes with combined driving forces:

Electro-osmofiltration (P + E) Electro-osmotic concentration (E + C) Gas separation (P + C) Piezodialysis (P + C)

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Osmosis
Osmosis is a natural occurring process used

by many plant &animal tissues to transport liquids across cell walls. It uses low pressure. The solvent passes through the membrane driven by the difference in solute concentrations on the two sides. Equilibrium is reached when sufficient water has moved to equalize the solute concentration on both sides of the membrane.

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Reverse Osmosis
Removal of dissolved salts from the solution by

applying external pressure greater than the osmotic pressure of the solution and where the water flows across the membrane from higher concentration to lower concentration.

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Osmosis and RO
Pure solvent Membrane EQUILIBRIUM The solvent flux is stopped . > From low Solvent passes solute Solution membrane to the the solution side. concentration to high Osmotic concentration. Pressure
OSMOSIS

REVERSE OSMOSIS

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From high The flux is solute reversed when a concentration P greater than

 According to IUPAC, a membrane is a structure, having lateral

Membrane
membrane is by:

dimensions much greater than its thickness, through which mass transfer may occur under a variety of driving forces.

Since membranes avoid the flow of liquid, the transport through the

Sorption: It refers either to adsorption or absorption of the particles in the membrane. The movement of particles from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. For diffusion to occur, the membrane must be permeable to molecules

Diffusion:

Feed Pum p
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Retentat e Membran e

Perme ate

Membrane
A semi

A permeable membrane allows the passage of all

dissolved substances and the solvent.

permeable membrane is capable of transporting different molecular species at different rates under identical conditions. The ideal semi permeable membrane in membrane processes is permeable to the solvent only but impermeable to all solutes.

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Membrane separation processes depend strongly on

the chemical nature of the membrane materials and the physical structure of the membranes.

Membrane

The following are some desirable characteristics of

membranes:
Good permeability High selectivity Mechanical stability Temperature stability
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Ability

to

withstand

large

pressure

Membrane Classification Structure According to the Physical

(trans-wall symmetry).

According to Geometric Shape.

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Symmetric

Physical Structure

Asymmetric Composite

Constructed by a single material and because of this reason, the membrane is uniform in density and pore structure throughout the cross-section. May be either homogeneous or

heterogeneous and are characterized by a density change given by the membrane material across the cross sectional area. Constituted by different (heterogeneous) materials, the membranes have a thin, dense layer that serves as the filtration

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Geometrical Structure
HOLLOW FIBER FLAT SHEET TUBULA R
Hollow Fiber Spiral wound modul module e Plate and Frame module Tubular module

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Hollow Fiber Module

Hollow Fiber Module (HFRO): Consist of a shell which houses a very large number of hollow membrane fibers. The membrane fibers are grouped in a bundle, evenly spaced about a central feed distributor tube. One end of the fiber is sealed and the other is open to the atmosphere. This bundle is inserted into a pressure container for use. During operation, pressurized 9/18/12 feed water is introduced

Consist of two semipermeable membranes placed back to back and separated by a woven fabric that functions as a permeate carrier, designed to prevent the membrane from penetrating into it and to minimize permeate pressure drop. The three edges of the membrane are sealed with adhesive, while the fourth one is attached to a perforated central tube. When the package is rolled up, the membrane layers are separated by a mesh that not only promotes turbulence, improving mass transfer but also reduces concentration polarization.
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Spiral-Wound Module

Plate and Frame Module

Consists of circular membranes sealed to both sides of a rigid plate (constructed of plastic, porous fiberglass or reinforced porous paper), which acts as mechanical support and as permeate carrier. These units are placed in a pressurized vessel for use. Each plate in the vessel is at low pressure, so that permeate passes through the membrane and is collected in the porous media.

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Tubular Module

Each membrane is held in a porous tube. In practice, the feed stream is circulated through tubes in series or parallel. Permeate solution passes through the membrane, through the tube and drops off into a receptacle for further permeate removal.

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Brackish Groundwater RO Plant

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 Pre-treatment

Operational Principal

Pressurization, Membrane separation Post-treatment stabilization.

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The incoming feed water is pre treated to be

Pretreatment

compatible with the membranes by removing suspended solids,major fouling impurities scaling suspended solids & Colloidal matter biological Matter ,metal oxides silica, adjusting the pH, and adding a threshold inhibitor to control scaling caused by constituents such as calcium sulphate.

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The pump raises the pressure of the pretreated feed water to an operating pressure appropriate for the membrane and the salinity of the feed water.

Pressurization

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Membrane separation

The permeable membranes inhibit the passage of

dissolved salts while permitting the desalinated product water to pass through. results in a freshwater product stream and a concentrated brine reject stream. Because no membrane is perfect in its rejection of dissolved salts, a small percentage of salt passes through the membrane and remains in the product water.

Applying feed water to the membrane assembly

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Stabilization

The product water from the membrane

assembly usually requires pH adjustment and degasification before being transferred to the distribution system for use as drinking water.

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Operational Concern
Preventive

Fouling is caused when membrane pores are

clogged by salts or obstructed by suspended particulates. maintenance includes instrument calibration, pump adjustment, chemical feed inspection and adjustment, leak detection and repair, and structural repair of the system on a planned schedule

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Advantages

Appreciable energy savings: Low energy consumption because these systems operate near room temperature. Clean technology with operational ease. Compact and modular design (using less space than cumbersome traditional methods). Produce high-quality products due to the high selectivity of the membranes. Allow the recovery of salable by-products from waste streams, which increases their profitability. Greater flexibility in designing systems. Easy incorporation to presently existing industrial plants.

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The membranes are sensitive to abuse and

Disadvantages
has high cost.

Needs

to be pre treated to remove particulates (in order to prolong membrane life). Interruptions of service during stormy weather. materials and equipment. Often need for foreign assistance to design, construct, and operate plants. of bacterial contamination of

Operation requires a high quality standard for

Carefully disposal of brine.

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the

Advancement in RO

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Larger Plant
Expected that economics for large plants will improve with larger elements Standard size helps in the bidding process multiple suppliers Overall impact reduce the cost of RO/NF plants

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Large Diameter Element Reduce Cost

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Improvement in Membrane Capacity

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Reduction in Membrane Price

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Improved Membrane Performance

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Swro Energy Use Reduction

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Environmental Effect
organisms by impingement and entrainment. pollution and contributing to climate change. natural water body.

The seawater intake may cause losses of aquatic The demand of energy and materials inducing air Effects caused by the release of brine to the Additives and their by-products can be toxic to

marine organisms, persistent and can accumulate in sediments and organisms.

Formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, isothiazole, and

sodium perborate are used for membrane cleaning are toxic to highly toxic for marine life. 9/18/12

Mitigation measure
drilled horizontal drains
Heavy

Beach well intake and seabed filters with directed In single cases, where chemicals cannot be

avoided through additional filtration steps, they need to be substituted by so-called green chemicals. metal discharge elimination can be achieved by substituting less corrosion-resistant tubing materials by more resistant materials.

Treatment of effluent before discharge.

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Renewable Energy and RO

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RO Plant in World
Kwinana desalination plant near Perth, Western

Australia (140,000 m3/day)In 2007

Singapore(136,000 m/day)In 2005 Aigeria(500,000 m3/d) In construction At Aktau, in Kazakhstan(80,000 m/day)In1984 Pakistan(4800 m3/day)in 2010 Hongyanhe project at Dalian (10,080 m3/day)In 2010 Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant,

Israil

( 330,000m per day)In 2006

9/18/12 Granot( 7,600 m3/day)

RO Plant in India
1) 2 x 30 m3/d brackish water RO plants providing

drinking water in villages of Andhra Pradesh & Gujarat. 1984 at RCF, Mumbai. 1986

50 m3/d RO unit for industrial effluent treatment plant 2 x 10 m3/d RO units for treatment of radioactive

liquid effluents at BARC, Mumbai. 1990

15 m3/d RO-DM plant at VECC, Kolkata for

production of low conductivity water. 1994 industry.1998

24 m3/d nano-filteration plant for a pharmaceutical

9/18/12 30 m3/d brackish water RO plant providing drinking