High Recovery Seed Slurry Reverse Osmosis Demonstration for Desalting Waters Saturated in Calcium Sulfate

摘要

The purpose of this work was to demonstrate the technical feasibility of RCC's patented seeded slurry reverse osmosis process for desalting waters saturated in calcium sulfate. This was carried out by operating a portable seeded RO test unit at the OWRT test facility in Roswell, New Mexico. The field test was conducted in September and October of 1980. This unit was operated for a month at a recovery of 90% or more with no indication of scaling or fouling. It took a feed that was close to saturation with calcium sulfate and concentrated it by a factor of 10. The only pretreatment used was 25 micron filtration, acidification and chlorination. During the test the modules continuously saw a suspended solids level of 15,000 mg/l or more. This demonstrates a unique way of operating a reverse osmosis system and a process for achieving high recovery when operating on waters nearly saturated in slightly soluble salts, e.g., calcium sulfate and silica.