Fluidized beds offer a potential improvement of reverse osmosis processes for food liquids, less fouling of the membrane, and reduced energy consumption. Our experiments were concerned with tubular systems in which fluidized beds of glass, steel, and lead beads were used. Glass beads appeared to be preferable, since they caused little damage to the membrane. Only with the larger glass beads (3 mm) did the membrane skin become corrugated, so that the rejection decreased. The permeate flux for Gouda cheese whey was almost equal to that of an empty tube for which the velocity was about thirty times higher. The erosive action of the glass beads on the fouling layer was partially responsible for this effect. For reverse osmosis of skim milk and potato fruit water the bed did not reduce the fouling layer to a sufficient extent and, therefore, had a lower permeate flux than an empty tube.
In pursuit of greater safety, lower environmental impact and lower capital expenditure, it is desired to reduce (or preferably eliminate) upstream offshore processing. Specifically for offshore platforms, the biggest capital expenditure savings can be achieved by either designing the offshore production facilities to be unmanned platforms or having subsea completions without a platform. In both cases all produced wellhead fluids will need to be transported untreated to shore in trunklines.
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