Improvement of reverse osmosis systems used for drinking and technical water supply

Introduction. The present paper shares new results of research devoted to improving the operation of conventional reverse osmosis. A new technological solution is proposed to escape scaling on the membrane surface. Applications of nanofiltration membranes provide a reduction of operation costs connected with chemical purchases to ensure pretreatment and chemical cleaning and also to pay for concentrate discharge into the sewer.

Materials and methods. In the paper, the experimental methods developed earlier were used, such as the evaluation of membrane rejection and control of permeate quality as a function of the initial feed water volume reduction coefficient K; evaluation of calcium carbonate scaling rates and organic fouling rates in membrane modules. The experimentally obtained relationships are presented: dependencies of calcium concentrations and TDS values on the initial volume reduction coefficient K values and product flow reduction with K value relationships. Also, the second series results are presented that demonstrate dependencies of calcium carbonate growth rates on K.

Results. Results of the required numbers of membrane modules are obtained to tailor the 3 cubic metres per hour capacity membrane facility and the results of economic calculations are also obtained.

Conclusions. The use of nanofiltration membranes on each stage of water treatment allows for the escape of deposition of sparingly soluble salts on the membrane surface and excludes antiscalant dosing and routine membrane cleanings. The use of the developed technology featured by the low operational cost due to reduced reagent consumption and concentrate discharge into the sewer.

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