Fouling investigation of a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination (SWRO) plant on the Red Sea: Membrane autopsy and pretreatment efficiency

Fortunato, Luca; Alshahri, Abdullah H.; Farinha, Andreia S.F.; Zakzouk, Islam; Jeong, Sanghyun; Leiknes, TorOve

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2020.114536

Cited by 54 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Taken together, our results and two previous studies (Rehman et al, 2019;Fortunato et al, 2020) indicate that biofouling can occur on RO membranes desalinating Red Sea water.…”

Section: Organic Fouling and Biofouling Are Moderate To Severesupporting

confidence: 86%

“…This is a high value compared to that reported for a RO membrane treating groundwater, where the Fe was 1-40 μg/cm 2 using filtered and unfiltered groundwater, respectively (Hijnen et al, 2011). And, Fe contents of about 40 μg/cm 2 were reported for RO membranes of a desalination plant on the Rea Sea (Fortunato et al, 2020). Iron is a common foulant, and 40% of 99 RO membrane autopsies showed the presence of iron (Chesters et al, 2013).…”

Section: Iron Deposits Caused Severe Foulingmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Despite the importance of membrane autopsies , sparse autopsy studies are available in the literature (Fortunato et al, 2020;Rho et al, 2019;Zheng et al, 2018). The majority of information regarding membrane autopsies refers to laboratory-scale studies, while fullscale studies are scant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Clinical Autopsy of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Module

et al. 2021

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The desalination of seawater using reverse osmosis membranes is an attractive solution to global freshwater scarcity. However, membrane performance is reduced by (bio)fouling. Membrane autopsies are essential for identifying the type of fouling material, and applying corrective measures to minimize membrane fouling. Information from full-scale membrane autopsies guiding improved plant operations is scant in the formal literature. In this case-study, a reverse osmosis membrane from a full-scale seawater desalination plant with a feed channel pressure drop increase of about 218% over the pressure vessel was autopsied. The simultaneous determination of microbial cells, ATP, and total organic carbon (TOC) abundances per membrane area allowed estimating the contributions of biofouling and organic fouling. The abundance of microbial cells determined by flow cytometry (up to 7 × 108 cells/cm2), and ATP (up to 21,000 pg/cm2) as well as TOC (up to 98 μg/cm2) were homogeneously distributed on the membrane. Inorganic fouling was also measured, and followed a similar coverage distribution to that of biofouling. Iron (∼150 μg/cm2, estimated by ICP-MS) was the main inorganic foulant. ATR-FTIR spectra supported that membrane fouling was both organic/biological and inorganic. High-resolution SEM-EDS imaging of cross-sectioned membranes allowed assessing the thickness of the fouling layer (up to 20 μm) and its elemental composition. Imaging results further supported the results of homogeneous fouling coverage. Moreover, imaging revealed both zones with and without compression of the polysulfone membrane layer, suggesting that the stress due to operating pressure was heterogeneous. The procedure for this membrane autopsy provided a reasonable overview of the diverse contributors of fouling and might be a starting point to building a consensus autopsy protocol. Next, it would be valuable to build a RO membrane autopsy database, which can be used as a guidance and diagnostic tool to improve the management and operation of RO desalination plants.

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“…Taken together, our results and two previous studies (Rehman et al, 2019;Fortunato et al, 2020) indicate that biofouling can occur on RO membranes desalinating Red Sea water.…”

Section: Organic Fouling and Biofouling Are Moderate To Severesupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Iron Deposits Caused Severe Foulingmentioning

confidence: 61%

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Clinical Autopsy of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Module

et al. 2021

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“…The method of measuring TSS is based on evaporating sample of water and then weighting the residues (Figure 2). Nevertheless, TSS remains an important parameter to evaluate filtered water quality (examples [33][34][35]). In addition, pH and electric conductivity tests were conducted to measure how filtration process has affected the water quality.…”

Section: Routine Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of Improved Seawater Quality using a Slow Sand Filtration

Abushandi¹

2021

Adv. sci. technol. eng. syst. j.

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In recent years water treatment methods under pressurized systems have been considered as the optimum high-rate filtration techniques. Unpressurized-slow sand filtration can be the cheapest and most efficient method, among others. This research aims to test the performance of a reliable seawater filtration system, using three different iterations. The filters have been designed considering many types of filtration layers such as sand, gravel, palm chlorophyll and other layers. The results of routine tests showed that the seawater pH, and TSS, and conductivity in the Gulf of Oman are relatively high. The pH values were decreased from 9.4 to 8.4 (filter 1), 9.0 (filter 2), and 8.7 (filter 3). Filter three has a reduced value of conductivity from 13.06 to 12.81 Ms/cm while a slight increase in filters 1 and 2. The TSS values were significantly reduced from 12.42 mg/L to 1.682 mg/L (filter 1), 2.478 mg/L (filter 2), and 1.200 mg/L (filter 3). This reflects the efficiency for each filter for this parameter is 86.5% for filter 1, 80% for filter 2, while 90.3% for filter three. Water velocity through each layer was monitored using Darcy law where the water of filter three has the longest residence time and slowest flow per time. The fastest flow was in filter one with an average of 0.5 L/minutes, filter two has an average flow of 0.088 L/minutes, while filter 3 has a flow rate of 0.026 L/minutes. The third filter has provided the best performance according to the results. Statistical analysis was conducted to understand the correlation between different parameters. As per Pearson correlation, there is a significant correlation between pH and conductivity values for 19 samples (0.989), while the correlation with TSS is relatively weak (0.364).

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“…It has also been applied to study the efficiency of different cleaning protocols for membranes fouled by thermomechanical pulp mill process water [ 10 ] and fouling by alkaline peroxide mechanical pulping effluent [ 11 ]. SEM in combination with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) provides information not only on the structure, but also on the elemental composition of the fouling layer and is already commonly used for the characterization of fouling in desalination processes [ 12 , 14 , 15 ]. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has also recently been used to analyze chemical compounds in lignocellulosic biorefining, and has been used, for example, to obtain structural information on the antisolvent precipitates of spent sulfite liquor [ 16 ] and to characterize the low molecular weight fraction after membrane filtration of Kraft lignin [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive Analysis of Foulants in an Ultrafiltration Membrane Used for the Treatment of Bleach Plant Effluent in a Sulfite Pulp Mill

et al. 2021

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Fouling is a major obstacle in the introduction of membrane processes in new applications in the pulping industry. Due to the complex nature of the feed solutions, complementary analysis methods are usually needed to identify the substances involved. Four different methods were used for the comprehensive analysis of a membrane removed from an ultrafiltration plant treating alkaline bleach plant effluent in a sulfite pulp mill to identify the substances causing fouling. Magnesium was detected both on the membrane surface and in the nonwoven membrane backing and a small amount of polysaccharides was detected after acid hydrolysis of the fouled membrane. This study provides information on foulants, which can be used to improve processing conditions and cleaning protocols and thus the membrane performance in pulp mill separation processes. It also provides an overview of the usefulness of various analytical methods.

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Fouling investigation of a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination (SWRO) plant on the Red Sea: Membrane autopsy and pretreatment efficiency

Cited by 54 publications

References 47 publications

Clinical Autopsy of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Module

Clinical Autopsy of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Module

Evidence of Improved Seawater Quality using a Slow Sand Filtration

Comprehensive Analysis of Foulants in an Ultrafiltration Membrane Used for the Treatment of Bleach Plant Effluent in a Sulfite Pulp Mill

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