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Membrane Water Treatment Volume 13, Number 1, January 2022 , pages 39-49 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/mwt.2022.13.1.039 |
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Effect of intermittent operation modes on performance of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane in desalination and water treatment |
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Heungsik Yang, Jihyeok Choi, Yongjun Choi and Sangho Lee
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| Abstract | ||
| Seawater desalination is doubtlessly a viable option to supply fresh drinking water. Nevertheless, RO (reverse osmosis) desalination plants in specific areas may be intermittently operated to match the imbalance between water demand and supply. Although a handful of works have been done on other membrane systems, few studies have attempted to mitigate fouling in intermittent RO systems. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper were to examine the effect of the intermittent operation on RO fouling; and to compare four intermittent operation modes including feed solution recirculation, membrane storage in the feed solution, deionized water (DI) recirculation, and membrane storage in DI water. Results showed that intermittent operation reduced RO fouling under several conditions. However, the extents of fouling mitigation were different depending on the feed conditions, foulant types, and membrane lay-up methods. When the feed solution was recirculated during the lay-up, the restoration of the flux was less significant than that by the feed solution feed-up. The use of deionized water during the lay-up was effective to restore flux, especially when the feed solution contains scale-forming salts (CaSO4) and/or colloidal silica. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| cleaning; flux; fouling; intermittent operation; reverse osmosis; scale formation | ||
| Address | ||
| Heungsik Yang, Jihyeok Choi and Yongjun Choi: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneung-Ro, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul, 02707, Republic of Korea Sangho Lee: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneung-Ro, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul, 02707, Republic of Korea/ Desalination Technologies Research Institute (DTRI), Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), WQ36+XJP, Al Jubayl 35417, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | ||
