Future for desalination by reverse osmosis

✍ Scribed by M.A. Jawad

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 318 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-9164
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-9164(89)80025-6

✦ Synopsis

Great advances have been made in seawater reverse osmosis (RO) technology during the last decade, which has led to a rapid increase in the use of this process. The application of RO for desalting brackish water is established, while for desalting seawater, however, it is still in its optimization stage. Two main interrelated areas of uncertainty require a second thought i.e., the extent of the membrane development and the pretreatment of the feed. This talk is an attempt to think loudly and to bring about a decision that might influence the future of seawater desalination by RO technology. INTRDDUCTIDN The world desalting market was recently analyzed by the International Desalination Association (ref. 1). World wide production is 11476 Mm3/d produced from about 5700 plants. Reverse osmosis (RO) accounts for 23.4% and multistage flash (MSF) for 64.5% of these plants. It is evident that great advances have been made in RO technology during the last decade and the use of RO is increasing rapidly. Excellent reliability of the seawater RO plant is established through operating experience. However, many still consider the application of RO to seawater desalination is in its optimization stage (ref. 2) as indicated in Fig. 1. Before discussing areas that still require further optimization we should refresh our memory with the main steps of this technology, as shown in Fig. 2 (ref. 3).