Self-adaptive feed flow reversal operation of reverse osmosis desalination

A perspective on reverse osmosis water desalination: Quest for sustainability

“…These feed pretreatment processes, while effective for minimizing membrane fouling due to particulate deposition, organic adsorption, and biological growth, do not remove mineral scale precursors. Mineral scaling is typically mitigated via: (a) the addition of polymeric antiscalants additives to the feed to suppress the nucleation and/or growth of mineral crystals and promote dispersion of crystals, (b) feed pH adjustment if calcium carbonate is an issue of concern, (c) regulation of water recovery to keep the level of retentate concentration within acceptable limits (as governed by mineral scaling kinetics), (d) periodic membrane cleaning (e.g., via fresh water flush, osmotic backwash, feed flow reversal, or chemical cleaning), and (e) removal of scale precursors via crystallization, nanofiltration, or ion exchange . In certain cases where boron and carbon dioxide removal are necessary and where silica scaling is to be avoided (at high recovery), RO operation at high pH may be necessary .…”

A review of reverse osmosis membrane fouling and control strategies

“…It is exacerbated by water pollution from agricultural residues, sewage as well as industrial waste (Yao et al, 2016). In order to meet the rising demand for fresh water, strategies like water reuse and seawater desalination have already been applied (Bartman et al, 2011;Gu et al, 2013). Membrane technology is one of the most promising ways to produce high quality water (Lin et al, 2016;Ochando-Pulido et al, 2016;.…”

Development of novel monitors for early detection of fouling in reverse osmosis systems

“…They are the Membrane Fouling Simulator (MFS) developed by Vrouwenvelder's group in the Netherlands (Vrouwenvelder et al, 2006a;Vrouwenvelder et al, 2006b;Vrouwenvelder et al, 2007;Vrouwenvelder et al, 2010;Vrouwenvelder et al, 2011). This was followed by the high pressure optical membrane module and the external membrane monitor (MeMo) developed by Hoek's group (Subramani and Hoek, 2008;Huang et al, 2010) and Cohen's group (Uchymiak et al, 2007;Bartman et al, 2011;Gu et al, 2013), respectively, in the United States. Both the MFS and the high pressure optical membrane module allow the quantification and characterization of biofouling in-situ and in real-time with non-invasive detection methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the MFS (Vrouwenvelder et al, 2010) and an optical microscope equipped with a reflected fluorescence system for the new high pressure optical membrane module (Huang et al, 2010).…”

“…Both the MFS and the high pressure optical membrane module allow the quantification and characterization of biofouling in-situ and in real-time with non-invasive detection methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the MFS (Vrouwenvelder et al, 2010) and an optical microscope equipped with a reflected fluorescence system for the new high pressure optical membrane module (Huang et al, 2010). Similarly with in-situ, real-time with noninvasive detection, the MeMo allowed the characterization of membrane scaling through the use of optical microscopy with near dark-field illumination (Gu et al, 2013).…”