Performance model for reverse osmosis

To meet the increasing global demand for freshwater, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has become a widely used technology to produce freshwater from seawater. A SWRO system consists of different components such as pumps, membranes, valves, and energy recovery devices. While it may be simple for process designers to understand the in-dividual performance of each piece of equipment, the performance of an entire SWRO system can be complex and counter-intuitive. Furthermore, SWRO processes are energy -intensive; thus, to minimize the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) of the process, it is of utmost importance that the performance of the system is monitored in real-time. Due to periodic changes in seawater quality and weather conditions, the operating parameters in a SWRO plant need continuous tweaking to minimize energy consumption and optimize the use of chemicals such that product water quality requirements are met. This calls for the need of a performance monitoring and optimization tool for SWRO. Since the advent of RO in 1950, such a system has never existed. Here, we present the first performance model for reverse osmosis (PMRO) for monitoring and optimizing the performance of SWRO assets;the developed model predicts the SEC of an operating SWRO plant with 93 % accuracy. (c) 2022 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

To meet the growing global demand for freshwater, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has become a widely used technology. However, the performance of a SWRO system can be complex and hard to predict, with high energy consumption. Therefore, real-time monitoring and optimization of system performance are crucial.