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Desalination of seawater using Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology is an important optionavailable to water-scarce coastal regions. Recent full-scale experiences have shown thatpretreatment is the key for this application of RO technology. This paper presents the results froma unique series of bench and pilot scale tests conducted in Southern California designed todetermine the effect of pretreatment on Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) performance. Thetwo most commonly used pretreatment schemes for SWRO - conventional pretreatment(coagulation/filtration) and membrane filtration were evaluated. Bench scale tests wereconducted for optimization of coagulant dose for conventional pretreatment. A bench scale setupbased on a modification of the Batch Internal Recycle Membrane Test (BAIReMT) developed byDiGiano et al (2000) was designed for screening RO membranes. Additionally, size fractionationof the seawater was conducted and RO fouling experiments was performed using the above setupto determine the effect of various size fractions on RO fouling. These size fractions can berelated to different levels of pretreatment commonly utilized for seawater RO. The pilot testing isbeing conducted in two phases: Phase I testing is pretreatment evaluation and Phase II is ROevaluation. During Phase I two filter configurations and Microfiltration were evaluated aspretreatment strategies. In the second phase of pilot testing two RO systems are being operatedsimultaneously to evaluate the effect of the pretreatments on RO fouling under different operatingconditions and water sources. Includes 10 references, tables, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 03/01/2005 Number of Pages: 12File Size: 1 file , 460 KB