Reverse osmosis

Recent research reports have underlined reverse osmosis (RO) as the most optimized technology for water desalination related applications. However, implementing this technology to seawater desalination is facing challenges of membrane fouling. This includes membrane biofouling, organic and inorganic

A co-generation system producing electricity and freshwater by a solar field driven supercritical organic Rankine cycle (SORC) coupled with a desalination unit is proposed. The proposed system can use parabolic trough solar collectors (among other options) to produce 700 kW thermal energy with temper

This paper presents the results of membrane scaling studies obtained after eight months of desalinating geothermal water in an integrated system that combines iron removal, ultrafiltration and two independent reverse osmosis systems fitted with low-pressure brackish water reverse osmosis membranes tha

The removal of arsenate [As(V)] and arsenite [As(III)] from water was investigated by using reverse osmosis (RO) technique with SWHR and BW-30 (FILMTEC) membranes. The effect of pH and concentration of the feed water and operating pressure on the rejection of both arsenic species was examined. The e

The previously derived characteristic equation of RO in Li, 2010 [8] is used to describe single- or multi-stage ROs with/without an energy recovery device (ERD). Analysis is made at both the theoretical limit (with analytical solutions provided if possible) and practical conditions (using constraine

Along with the older style centrifugal energy recovery devices (ERDs), there has been a recent proliferation of ERDs that employ positive displacement mechanisms. These “pressure-equalising” or isobaric ERDs transfer the energy from the membrane reject stream directly to the membrane feed stream. Th

The CSIRO Flagship Cluster project Advanced Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment is a collaboration of nine Australian Universities and the CSIRO looking at improving the energy efficiency of desalination of seawater using membrane processes. One of the initial aims of the cluster is to develop

Model for concentration polarization enhanced by gel accumulated at membrane surface has been proposed. It provides distribution of concentration in the liquid phase and within the gel layer. Model allows analyzing the influence of thickness of fouling layer on the CP degree, surface concentration,

A bench scale RO process simulator was operated in a batch concentration mode to determine the effects of product water recovery and feed water temperature on flux, rejection, and inorganic fouling by gypsum scale formation for simulated brackish water. As feed water temperature increased, salt reje

In winter in high-latitude oceans, there is a great amount of sea ice, which is being recognized as a new resource of fresh water. Different desalination methods including sea ice solid-state desalination and sea ice melt-water desalination were compared. In a centrifugal desalination experiment, ro