Best Practices in the Functional Design and Operation of Reverse OsmosisMembrane Plants

摘要

Purification of water and wastewater with reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, thoughrnsimple in concept, is very much a process with complicated chemistries requiringrnvalidated design and trained operations team. The challenge for designing and operatingrnRO membrane plants to run continuously, with membrane service lives of greater than 12rnyears forces one to examine the adequacy and integration of functions needed in thernrealms of process chemistry, plant equipment and people that operate and maintain thernRO plants.rnOur daily focus on solving major problems of existing RO plants, and closing the gaprnbetween these plants and those that run continuously without unscheduled stoppages forrnmore than 12 years motivated this analysis of functions that relate to plant performances.rnWe list the major functions in the process, equipment and people domains. Missingrnfunctions often can be correlated with poor plant performances. Since end-users have therneconomic burden of providing for these functions, their awareness of the relationshiprnbetween the functions and outcomes in plant operation is very important. For the enduser’srnstaff, contractors, suppliers and consultants, considerations and optimization ofrntheir functional effectiveness brings great value to their services. By pointing to thernneeded changes and missing functional components, we are very optimistic that throughrncollaborations, our technical community can come together to promote a best practice forrnthe much desired goal of seeing RO used as continuous processes without fouling, and atrnmaximum recovery of precious water.