Evaluation of Sea-Water Reverse Osmosis Modules for Single-Pass Shipboard Desalination Systems

摘要

Experimental evaluations were made on two single-pass sea-water reverse osmosis modules. One was evaluated on synthetic sea water for 1100 hours and the other evaluated on natural sea water for 1500 hours. Both modules initially performed well, producing water of less than 150 parts per million total dissolved solids. It was found that iron fouling from system piping and components reduced product rate and that bacterial attack on the membrane material seriously reduced the product water rate and quality. Further investigations will be conducted on similar reverse osmosis equipment in which the materials of construction are selected to minimize iron fouling, and various methods of pretreating the sea-water feed to kill or remove undesirable microorganisms are used. It is recommended that in future evaluations, in-depth studies of the product water be made to determine its fitness for human consumption. (Author)