BTP PHASE- I REPORT

Monitoring and control of Effective Reverse Osmosis Plant

By Ch.N.V.Ravi Teja Under the supervision of Prof. Nitin Padhiyar Prof. Amey Karnik

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GANDHINAGAR

November, 2012

CERTIFICATE

It is certified that the work contained in the project report entitled Monitoring and Control of Reverse Osmosis Plant, by CH.N.V.RAVI TEJA (9001027) has been carried out under our supervision and that this work has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of a degree.

Date: 20-11-2012

Prof. Nitin Padhiyar Assistant Professor Department of Chemical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

Prof. Amey Karnik Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to show my gratitude to my Supervisors Prof. Nitin Padhiyar and Prof. Amey Karnik, for their patience and time spent in guiding me during the BTP project work. Their advice and ideas were instrumental in giving me the ability to adapt to the research environment and giving me consistent motivation through their passion for the work. I would also like to thank the owner of Maharshi Keyuri Marketing entrepreneurs, Brijesh Prajapati for teaching his wonderful practical knowledge about water purifiers systems. I must also thank the IIT Gandhinagar administrative staff, especially Supresh (chemical lab assistant), for his immense assistance, as well as funding from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar for making the project work possible.

Date: 20-11-2012

CH.N.V.RAVI TEJA

ABSTRACT
Water shortages in many areas of the world have increased the need for smarter and more efficient methods for production of drinking water, production of water for agricultural uses, as well as wastewater reuse. So water purification by cost effective and efficient methods is a challenging filed of research. In this regards, reverse osmosis membrane desalination of both seawater and inland brackish water is currently being deployed in various locations around the world. There are also a growing number of large-scale desalination plants either in the planning or construction stages. In this project we have also tried to integrate these existing technologies with novel method, wherein we prepared carbon nanotubes at the lab scale that may potentially replace activated carbon tubes being used traditionally. This has proven to enhance the efficacy of the water filter, effectively neutralising almost all of the organic impurities. This will also ensure reduction in TDS. Carbon nanotubes have exhibited great potentials in applications as composite reinforcements, field emitters, sensors, energy storage and energy conversion devices, and catalysts support phases, because of their extraordinary mechanical, electrical, thermal and structural properties. In particular, the large specific surface areas, as well as the high chemical and thermal stabilities, make carbon nano tubes an attractive adsorbent in wastewater treatment. Carbon nanotubes are excellent and effective adsorbent for eliminating these harmful media in water. In this report, carbon nano tubes were prepared by candle soot method and mixed with activated charcoal in different compositions and the effect of composition change is monitored by using TDS measuring meter. As the nano carbon composition is increasing the TDS of the water is gradually decreasing. By providing larger surface area by nano tubes will enhance the life time for carbon filter. Additionally, in order to meet water production targets while making the process economically and technically feasible, system operation (feed flow rate, feed pressure, overall system recovery) must be maintained at specific operating points which may vary over time due to changing feed water quality. At present, standard operation and control strategies for reverse osmosis membrane water desalination systems do not adequately account for feed water variability. Current control strategies (such as directly increasing the feed flow rate to account for decreasing permeate production) which lack intimate knowledge of the process (e.g., the effects of scaling/fouling on the system operation, or the system energy usage) can actually accelerate membrane fouling and cause irreparable membrane/system damage. Optimal operation of RO desalination requires effective process control

and energy optimization along with membrane monitoring, which is crucial for inland brackish water desalination, to monitor the state of the reverse osmosis membranes with respect to fouling and mineral salt scaling.

Addressing to this we focuses on the design and implementation of a nonlinear model-based control system on an experimental reverse-osmosis (RO) membrane water desalination system to address large set-point changes and variations in feed water salinity and addressed the variation of TDS with change in FR(flow rejector) size and flow rate of feed and pressure(PSI) of pump. From this, we tried in this report to design a non linear model based control system by using several sensors to implement a robust control on the experimental RO system, and its setpoint tracking and disturbance rejection capabilities are successfully evaluated.

Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 WATER PURIFICATION STAGES 1.2 DEVELOPED SYSTEM CONTAINING TWO STAGES 1.2.1 Carbon flitration 1.2.2 Reverse Osmosis Desalination 2 LAB RESULTS AND CALCULATIONS 2.1 MASS AND TDS BALANCES 2.2 OBSERVATION TABLES AND RESULTS 2.3 CONCLUSION 3 FUTURE WORK 3.1 DEVELOP ROBUST CONTROL USING SENSORS AND MATLAB CODING

List of Figures
1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 Traditional Water Purifier Unit Lab Scale Water Purifier Set Up Preparation of CNTs by Candle suit method SEM and TEM images of CNT Reverse Osmosis Process Schematic diagram of a spiral-wound membrane module Schematic Diagram showing retentae and permeate streams and FR Schematic Diagram showing Flow Rejector Graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 80 psi pump and 350 FR Graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 110 psi pump and 350 FR Graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 110 psi pump and 450 FR Graph showing variation TDS vs Time for different flow rate Graph obtained from results showing the variation of pump pressure on TDS Graph obtained from results showing the variation of size of FR on TDS Graph obtained from results showing the variation of feed flow on TDS

List of Tables
1.1.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7 2.1.7 2.1.8 Results showing the effect of CNTs on TDS Results showing the flow rates, TDS of streams for 80 psi pump and 350 FR Results showing the dynamic values of TDS for 80 psi pump and 350 FR Results showing the flow rates, TDS of streams for 110 psi pump and 350 FR Results showing the dynamic values of TDS for 80 psi pump and 350 FR Results showing the dynamic values of TDS for 110 psi pump and 350 FR Results showing the flow rates, TDS of streams for 110 psi pump and 450 FR Results showing the dynamic values of TDS for 110 psi pump and 450 FR Results showing the flow rates, TDS of streams for different flow rate Results showing the dynamic values of TDS for different flow rate

List of Symbols and Abbreviations retentate stream velocity in cm/s permeate stream velocity in cm/s, cross-sectional area of the feed line, cross-sectional area of the retentate line, and cross-sectional area of the permeate line(all cross-sectional areas in cm2). CNT - Carbon Nanotubes TDS - Total Dissolved Solids FR - Flow Rejector

Introduction:
1.1 Water Purification Stages: Traditional water purifier contains several stages of purification like 5 Stage Purification:

Stage 1 Sediment Filtration: The Large Sediment Filter is made of polypropylene

and is the initial filter for large sediments such as rust, sandstone, lime, soil and other particles as small as 5 microns. Stage 2 Pre Carbon Filtration: The Coconut Shell Granular Carbon Filter cartridge contains granular activated carbon for superior removal of chemicals such as chlorine, organic and inorganic compounds from the water. Stage 3 Sedimentation Filtration of finer size: Small Sediment Filter removes fine impurities as small as 1 micron, such as rust, lime and carbon powder. This is kept before RO membrane to increase the life time of RO membrane which is the heart of purifier.

Fig 1.1.1 Traditional Water Purifier Unit

Stage 4 RO membrane: The Reverse Osmosis Membrane removes impure

substances such as microorganisms, chemicals, arsenic, cobalt, cadmium, mercury and other toxic particles to produce purified drinking water. Stage 5 Post Carbon Filtration: The Anti-Microbial Filter cartridge contains coconut activated carbon and an enhanced formula, which is specially designed to prevent unpleasant odors, tastes and microorganisms from reoccurring as the purified water leaves the faucet. It meets the standard of filtering efficiency test of ANSI-NSF.

1.2 Developed System : In this we choose two main stages of purification for cost effective process are Carbon filtration and RO membrane. Sedimentation is not much needed in our case as our feed is tap water.

1. Pre nanocarbon Filtration

2. RO Membrane

Fig 1.1.2 Lab Scale Water Purifier Set Up As we mention in the abstract instead of activated carbon in carbon filtration unit we tried replacing 15% carbon tubes with 5% pure nanocarbon tubes that are synthesised at the lab scale by candle suit method. Composition of carbon filtration: 85% carbon tubes and 15% carbon nanotubes Synthesis of CNTs : Arc discharge: Two carbon rods placed end to end, separated by approximately 1mm, in an inert atmosphere at low pressure. Yield of CNT depends on the uniformity of the discharge and the temperature of deposit. Laser ablation: A pulsed or continuous laser is used to vaporise a graphite target in an oven at 1200 C using catalyst. Chemical vapor decomposition: Control over the diameter, as well as the growth rate of the nano tubes can also be maintained

 In this synthesis CNTs are prepared by putting a carbon source in the gas phase and using an energy source, such as plasma or a resistively heated coil, to transfer energy to a gaseous carbon molecule. Flame synthesis: This method is based on the synthesis of SWNTs in a controlled flame environment, that produces the temperature, forms the carbon atoms from the inexpensive hydrocarbon fuels and forms small aerosol metal catalyst islands. On these metal islands the SWNTs are grown in the same manner as in laser ablation and arc discharge. Preparation of Carbon nano tubes: Take 100 to 150 candles which cost around 20 RS, and lighten them taking 10 each and collect the candle suit by keeping aluminium foil sheets on the top as shown in the figure. Candle soot was collecting which is consisting of 5% carbon nanotubes . Crude carbon nanotubes were purified by centrifugation by using concentrated acids like Sulphuric acid. The formed pure carbon tubes can be characterized by using particle size analyzer, TEM and SEM.

Fig 1.1.3 Preparation of CNTs by Candle suit method

1.2.1 Carbon Filtration (activated carbon + nanocarbon mixture): Activated carbon removes contaminants, impurities utilizing adsorption mechanism. This is effective method to remove organic matter from the water. But it is in efficient in the removal of minerals, salts and other inorganic material. Addition of carbon nanotubes will increase the life time for activated carbon by providing large surface area.

Fig 1.2.1 SEM and TEM images of CNT We have taken carbon nanotubes in different rations and observed that the increase in the carbon nanotubes amount leads to decrease in the TDS of the water. Results: combination Normal carbon + RO CNT + RO Normal carbon + RO CNT + RO Time Initial Initial 10 min later 10 min later TDS 121 ppm 99 ppm 42 ppm 35 ppm
Table 1.1.1 results showing the effet of CNTs on TDS

1.2.2 Reverse Osmosis Desalination:

In the process of osmosis a solvent passes through a semi-permeable membrane in order to equilibrate the solute concentration on both sides. In the case of osmosis in saltwater, the water passes through the semipermeable membrane from the region of low salt concentration to the region of high salt concentration. This, in turn, would cause the salt concentrations on either side of the membrane to equilibrate over time. The pressure that forces the water to flow through the membrane is called the osmotic pressure. This osmotic pressure arises from the differences in

fugacity of the solvent on either side of the semi-permeable membrane as represented below Assuming both sides of the membrane are at equal pressures ( ) (Left}

Fig 1.2.2 Reverse Osmosis Process

In reverse osmosis (RO) shown in the figure a pressure is applied in the direction opposing the osmotic pressure. If this applied pressure is equal to the osmotic pressure, no solvent will flow through the membrane. If this pressure becomes higher than the osmotic pressure, the reverse effect is observed; solvent will flow from the region of high salt concentration to the region of low salt concentration. This process will cause the salt on the high concentration side to become even more concentrated, whereas the salt concentration on the other side will decrease.

Fig 1.2.3 Schematic diagram of a spiral-wound membrane module It contains two outlets 1. Retentate Concentrated solution 2. Permeate Pure water (which is in less TDS)

In most RO desalination systems, the water is pre-treated (i.e., with cartridge filters, micro/ultra/nano-filtration, etc.) to remove any large particles, bacteria, or other biological materials. The treated water is then pumped to high pressure using booster pumps and fed to the membrane unit(s). The permeate stream is commonly post-treated to remove any additional impurities or after-effects caused by the pre-treatment, and the brine stream is managed by disposal, further volume minimization, or reuse in suitable high-salinity applications.

Retentate Permeate Flow Rejector

Fig 1.2.4 Schematic Diagram showing retentae and permeate streams and FR

Fig 1.2.5 Schematic Diagram showing Flow Rejector

TDS meter

Booster pump (80 PSI)

Fig 1.2.6 Booster pump of capacity 80 psi

Why do we need a robust control: Even with advances in reverse osmosis membrane technology (membranes with Higher permeability, fouling/scaling resistance, etc.), maintaining the desired process conditions is essential to successfully operating a reverse osmosis desalination system. Seasonal, monthly, or even daily changes in feed water quality can drastically alter the conditions in the reverse osmosis membrane modules, leading to decreased water production, sub-optimal system performance, or even permanent membrane damage To account for the variability of feed water quality, a robust process control strategy is necessary. In a modern RO plant, automation and reliability are elements crucial to providing personnel safety, achieving product water quality, meeting environmental constraints, and satisfying economic demands. Industrial RO desalination processes primarily use traditional proportional and proportionalintegral (PI) control to monitor production flow and adjust feed pumps accordingly. While such control strategies are able to maintain a consistent product water (permeate) flow rate, they may fail to provide an optimal closed loop response, with respect to set-point transitions, because of the presence of nonlinear process behavior. In some cases, permeate production can decrease, because of scaling or fouling on the membrane surface. When this occurs, traditional control algorithms force the feed pumps to increase the feed flow rate, leading to an increased rate of scaling, irreversible membrane damage, and eventual plant shutdown.

2.1 Mass and TDS balances:

Overall Mass Balance: The mass balance around control volume 1 can be represented as follows: Eq-1 where is the feed stream velocity in cm/s is the retentate stream velocity in cm/s is the permeate stream velocity in cm/s, is the cross-sectional area of the feed line, is the cross-sectional area of the retentate line, and is the cross-sectional area of the permeate line(all cross-sectional areas in cm2). Approximating the density of the water as being concentration invariant Eq-1 is expressed as The product area*velocity can be expressed as flow rate and Its nothing but 0 = flow rate of feed water line flow rate of retentate line flow rate of permeate line But practically in our experiments where membrane housing is not that much strong, we observed a lot of leakage also. If we do mass balance we get leakage around 6.493506494 cc/sec Leakage = flow rate of feed water line flow rate of retentate line flow rate of permeate line TDS Balance: Total amount of dissolved solids in through feed = Total amount of dissolved solids in permeate + Total amount of dissolved solids in retentate Representation in equation: Feed --- feed flow rate TDS --- TDS of particular stream

Feed *TDS = Retentate*TDS + Permeate*TDS + Leakage*TDS

In the following observation tables the balances can be explicitly shown.

2.2 Observation Tables:

Readings obtained after steady state: Specifications: When FR is at 350 um, Pump pressure 80 psi, Feed flow rate - 16.666667cc/sec Parameters
Flow Rate(cc/sec) 16.66666667 Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) in PPM equivalent to mass (cm^3/sec * PPM) 7.142857143 3.03030303 6.493506494

Feed

Retentate

Permeate

Leakage

630
10500

810
5785.714286

22
66.66666667

630
4090.909091

Permeate TDS dynamic values:

time(sec) 0 4 7 9 17 27 36 47 68 90 98 150 300 TDS(PPM) 147 89 62 45 34 28 26 23 22 22 22 22 22

Table 2.1.1 results showing the flow rates, TDS of various streams

Table 2.1.2 results showing the values of TDS

dynamic

160 140 120 100 TDS(PPM) 80 60 40 20 0 0

TDS vs time
80 psi pump 350 um FR

Fig 2.1.1 graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 80 psi pump and 350 FR

200 Time (sec)

400

Specifications: When FR is at 350 um, Pump pressure 110 psi, Feed flow rate - 16.666667cc/sec Parameters
Flow Rate(cc/sec) 16.66666667 Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) in PPM equivalent to mass (cm^3/sec * PPM) 8.333333333 4.166666667 4.166666667

Feed

Retentate

Permeate

Leakage

630
10500

842
7016.666667

16
66.66666667

630
2625

Permeate TDS dynamic values:

time (sec) 0 3 10 21 40 54 72 85 103 114 130 143 180 190 210 TDS (PPM) 62 52 33 26 20 19 18 18 17 17 17 16 16 16 16

Table 2.1.3 results showing the flow rates, TDS of various streams

70 60 50 40 TDS(PPM) 30 20 10 0 0

TDS vs time
110 psi Pump 350 um FR

100

Time (sec)

200

300

Table 2.1.4 results showing dynamic values of TDS

Specifications: When FR is at 450 um, Pump pressure 110 psi, Feed flow rate - 16.666667cc/sec Parameters Feed Retentate Permeate Leakage
Flow Rate(cc/sec) 16.66666667 Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) in PPM equivalent to mass (cm^3/sec * PPM) 10 3.571428571 3.095238095

Fig 2.1.2 graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 110 psi pump and 350 FR

630
10500

801.3333
8013.333333

16
57.14285714

630
1950

Table 2.1.5 results showing the flow rates, TDS of various streams

time(sec) 0 14 27 38 51 64 78 88 111 124 152 175 192 235

TDS (PPM) 93 52 31 24 21 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 16 16 Fig 2.1.3 graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 110 psi pump and 450 FR
100 90 80 70 60 TDS(PPM) 50 40 30 20 10 0 0

TDS vs time
110 psi Pump 450 um FR

100 200 Time (sec)

300

Table 2.1.6 results showing dynamic values of TDS

Specifications: When FR is at 450 um, Pump pressure 110 psi, Feed flow rate - 25cc/sec Parameters
Flow Rate(cc/sec) 25 Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) in PPM equivalent to mass (cm^3/sec * PPM) 12.5 4.166666667 8.333333333

Feed

Retentate

Permeate

Leakage

630
10500

800
8013.333333

15
57.14285714

630
1950

Table 2.1.7 results showing the flow rates, TDS of various streams

Permete TDS dynamic values:

time(sec) 0 12 21 32 41 51 62 72 81 96 105 125 138 147 159 210 300 TDS(PPM) 83 37 26 21 19 19 18 17 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 15 15

90 80 70 60 50 TDS(PPM) 40 30 20 10 0 0

TDS vs time
110 psi Pump 450 um FR flow rate changed

100

200 Time (sec)

300

400

Table 2.1.8 results showing the dynamic values of TDS

Fig 2.1.4 graph showing variation TDS vs Time for 110 psi pump and 450 FR with different flow rate

2.3 Conclusions:
From the obtained results and graphs we can conclude the following points Increase in the pressure of pump(80 to 110 psi) leads to more purification and getting more less TDS water ( TDS reducing from 22 to 16) At the same time it will also reduce the time to attain steady state, which means purity attains at faster rate.
160 140 120 100 TDS(PPM) 80 60 40 20 0 0 100 200 Time (sec) 300 400 80 psi pump 350 um FR 110 psi Pump 350um FR

TDS vs time

Fig 2.2.1 Graph obtained from results showing the

variation of pump pressure on TDS

 Increase in the size of Flow Rejector (350 to 450 um) will attain almost same purity after attaining steady state but attainment of steady state would be faster for flow rejector of less size(350 um).

100 90 80 70 60 TDS(PPM) 50 40 30 20 10 0 0

TDS vs time
110 psi Pump 350 um FR 110 psi Pump 450 um FR

Fig 2.2.2 Graph obtained from

results showing the variation FR size on TDS

50

100 150 Time (sec)

200

250

Increase in the feed flow rate reacted almost similar to increase in the pump pressure, it increase the purity of permeate (16 to 15 ppm) and attained steady state at a faster rate.

100 90 80 70 60 TDS(PPM) 50 40 30 20 10 0 0

TDS vs time
110 psi Pump 450 um FR

110 psi Pump 450 um FR but feed flow rate increased

100

200 Time (sec)

300

400

Fig 2.2.3 Graph obtained from results showing the variation feed

flow rate on TDS

3. FUTURE WORK : Till now we tried to understand what are the different parameters in the RO desalination plant and how these parameters are changing with the several change in inputs like pump pressure, feed flow rate, flow rejector size. Paper Summary: Now we are interested to develop the control by using different sensors available in the market to control pressure, flow rates etc.. Typical control loop we want to develop looks as follows

Reverse-osmosis (RO) system under proportional-integral (PI) control adjusting the variable frequency drive (VFD) speed and nonlinear control adjusting retentate valve position: square symbols indicate PI control and nonlinear control (NL) and circular symbols indicate measurement sensors (conductivity(C), pressure (P), flow (F)).

As we have studied some basic equations regarding modeling while doing our project, we need to use them in writing code for the control. (not presenting equation in this phase due to space constraint) We need to set up similar lab as shown in the figure and after taking the readings from sensors, we need to develop embeded systems from which we will get results similar to the table shown below giving proportionality constant and time constants of PI control. Loop I PI Controller Tuning Parameters for the First Set of Experiments parameter Kf f value 0.01 0.1 0.01 0.1

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