Membrane Desalination

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Fundamentals

Dr. Atif Mustafa
Department of Environmental Engineering
NED University of Engineering and Technology
05-06 September 2016
03-04 Zilhaja1437 Hijri
 Outline
History of membrane technology

Osmosis, reverse osmosis and forward osmosis

Role of RO membranes (Drinking and industrial)

Comparison between RO, UF, NF, MF

Classification of membranes (Materials, Structure, Shape, Module)

Typical element specification sheet

Spiral wound module construction demo

Hollow fiber

Plate technology

Membranes of different sizes

History of Membrane Technology
1748 • Abbe NoIilett: discovery of osmosis phenomenon

1855 • Fick: Synthetic membrane from nitrocellulose

• Traube: Research on osmosis with synthetic
1860 membranes
• Pfeffer: Research on osmosis with ceramic
1877 membranes
1877 • Gibbs & van Hoff: Theory of osmotic phenomena
1926 • Michaels: Research on reverse osmosis

1929 • Manegold: Research on reverse osmosis

1931 • Mc Bain: Research on reverse osmosis

1957 • Breton & Reid: Synthetic membrane from

celulose acetate
1963 • Loeb i Surirajan: Manufacturing of asymmetric
1970 • Cadotte, Lonsdale: Composite membranes
The First Membrane Plant
 History
2000 years

• The history of desalination is centuries long and

dates back more than two thousand years
• The historical records show that some
civilizations such as Egyptians, Persians, and
Greeks studied obtaining fresh water from
seawater
• Hippocrates, a well-known philosopher, stated
that “vapor produced from seawater when
condensed is no longer salty” and taught his
students the concept of desalting
 History
• Arabs developed a distiller called “alembic” which was
very similar to a single-effect distillation process known
today
• Japanese sailors used earthenware pots to boil
seawater and bamboo tubes to collect the condensate
• Following early research and development efforts,
there has been an exponential increase in desalination
capacity installed globally since 1960
 History
5th Century BC – Earliest distillation
process by Greek sailors
3rd Century BC – Aristotle describes
distillation process
2nd Century BC – Egyptian
distillation processes described
15th Century - Solar still used by an Arab
Alchemist for water treatment
17th Century – Japanese sailors ,distillation
earthenware pots/bamboo tubes
18th Century – US Navy distillation: “Report
on Desalination of Seawater”
19th Century – First commercial Desalination
plant Tigne, Sleima,Malta
20th Century – Ottoman Turks, Distillation
Plant in Jeddah, 1907
 Mid 1900’s
• By mid 1900’s…Advances in microscopy and cell biology
led to concept of the Lipid Bilayer
• Membranes and semi-permeable membranes; R&D was
underway towards a synthetic perm-selective
membrane.
• 1954 - Multi stage flash (MSF) distillers developed
for the US Navy (Worthen and Barbour of
Bethlehem Steel Co. 1955 Patent for a 5 stage MSF
unit)
• 1954 - Cleaver Brooks Co (later AquaChem)-four 5
stage MSF units each of 50000 gpd for the aircraft
carrier Independence
• 1956: four units of MSF each 500000 imperial
gallons per day in Kuwait
 After Mid 1900’s
• 1962 - Asymmetric CA(Loeb & Sourirajan)
• 1963 - First spiral-wound module (General
Atomics)
• 1967 - First hollow-fiber module (Du Pont)
• 1975 - First commercial Thin Film Composite
(TFC) Polyamide; Water factory (OCWD)
• 1980 - The age of large scale units
• 1986 - Nanofiltration widely available (FilmTec)
• 1990 – RO growth
• 2000 - New membrane process development
First Practical Seawater Desalination Plant
• June 21, 1961 first practical plant for the
conversion of seawater to drinking water;
• Built in less than a year at a cost of $1.5 million
at Freeport, Texas by the Dow Chemical Co.;
• Capable of producing about a million gallons of
water a day,
• Supplying fresh water to the city of Freeport at a
cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons;
China’s Largest Desalination Plant
• China’s SDIC (State Development and Investment Corporation)
needed a reliable and sustainable supply of clean water near the
Tianjin power plant, 200km northeast of Beijing.
• The plant provides high quality drinking water for the local
population, as well as industrial boiler make up and process water
for the power plant.
• The Tianjin Beijing Power Plant is a mega-size engineering system
composed of a power plant, seawater desalination plant and salt
production from brine, and is managed as an integrated system in
which all three parts are interdependent on one another.
• Capacity: 200,000 m3/day
Technology: Multi-Effect Distillation (MED)
Project Type: Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC)
Location: Hangu, Tianjin, China
Footprint: 125m x 160m = 20,000 m2, 2 ha
Commission date: 2010, 2013
 China’s Largest Desalination
Highlights
• Reduced atmospheric heat discharge - the system is powered
by waste heat generated by the Tianjin SDIC electricity plant,
thereby reducing costs and
"We areminimizing the discharge
proud of this of heat from
world-class
the plant to the atmosphere
MED design and believe that it will
• Table salt production serve as aa model
- using for other power
new technology, the system recycles
post-desalination wasteplants
brinethroughout the world.
to evaporation ponds"for production of
pure table salt Mr. Guo Qigangang, General
Manager, Tianjin SDIC Jinneng
• Reduced environmental impact - a unique closed
Electric Power Plant
seawater circulation technology eliminates dependence on external
water resources
• Trusted long-term partnership - after the successful installation of the
first 4 units, SDIC selected IDE to expand the desalination plant and
reach a total capacity of 200,000 m3/day
 World’s Largest Desalination Plant
• The world's largest seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO)
plant, is the Sorek plant in Israel
• CAPACITY: 624,000 m3/day
TECHNOLOGY: Reverse Osmosis
FOOTPRINT: 100,000 m2 (10 ha)
COMMISSON DATE: 2013
PROJECT TYPE: 25-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
• Cost of water produced in Sorek, $0.68/m3 compared to
a bid price of $0.58/m3
The country possesses
only 265 m3/yr of
freshwater available per
person, this is well below
the U.N. definition of water
poverty (below 1000 m3
per person).
 World’s Largest Desalination Plant
• For the first time globally, the plant features 16" SWRO
membranes in a vertical arrangement
The Ras Al Khair Plant in Saudi Arabia, is
• Most large scale RO systems comprise horizontal arrays of
one of the the largest seawater
multi element vessels
desalination ofin8"thediameter
facility world. Thismounted
plant in a series
• The system for Sorek
will use uses
Toyobo’s 16" elements
reverse osmosis in a series that are
membrane elements and will produce
mounted vertically
345,000 cubic meters of water per day.
• The 16" membranes, in this arrangement, have a flow rate of
4.3 times more water than 8" membranes (at the same feed
pressure and operation conditions) and higher plant efficiency
and a reduced footprint (50% compared to traditional RO)
 Facts
• Nearly half of the global population lives
within 100 kilometers of the ocean coast
• Can we avoid desalination?
• Desalination is here to stay and it will
inevitably become bigger
Fresh Water Availability
 Global Challenges for the
New Millennium
1. Energy
2. Water
3. Food
4. Environment
5. Poverty
6. Terrorism and War
7. Disease
8. Education
9. Democracy
10. Population
High Population Density Near
Coasts
Most of the Mega Cities Located
Near Coasts

Fourteen of the world's largest cities are located along the coast
 Brackish and Seawater
• Typically, water with a TDS concentration higher
than 500 mg/L and not higher than 15,000 mg/L
(15 ppt) is classified as brackish.
• Natural water sources such as sea, bay, and ocean
waters that have TDS concentrations higher than
15,000 mg/L are generally classified as seawater.
• For example, Pacific Ocean seawater along the
West Coast of the United States has an average
TDS concentration of 35,000 mg/L, Persian Gulf
Countries > 40,000 mg/L, Karachi Coast > 35,000
mg/L
 Dissolved Solids in Water
• The mineral or salt content of water is usually measured
by the water quality parameter called total dissolved
solids (TDS), the concentration of which is expressed in
milligrams per liter (mg/L) or parts per thousand (ppt).
• The World Health Organization, as well as the United
Sates Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) under
the Safe Drinking Water Act, have established a
maximum TDS concentration of 500 mg/L as a potable
water standard.
• This TDS level can be used as a classification limit to
define potable (fresh) water
Major Ion Composition of Seawater (mg/liter),
Desalination by the Numbers
17,000+ are the total number of desalination plants
worldwide (as of 2013)

The global capacity of commissioned

desalination plants (as of 2013) is more than
more than 80 million cubic meters per day

21.1 billion US gallons per day, the equivalent of

66.5 million cubic meters per day treated water is
produced

The number of countries where desalination is

practiced is 150

More than 300 million people around the world

who rely on desalinated water for some or all
their daily needs
Desalination Technologies
Multi-stage flash
distillation (MSF)

Multi-effect
Thermal distillation
(MED)

Vapour
compression
distillation (VCD)
Desalination

Reverse
osmosis (RO)

Membrane
Nano filtration
(NF)

Electro dialysis
(ED)
 Seawater Desalination
• Augmenting and diversifying water supply
• Reverse osmosis and thermal desalination
(MSF and MED) are the current desalination
technologies
• Energy intensive (cost and environmental
impact)
• Reverse osmosis is currently the leading
technology
 Diffusion
• When molecules move from areas of
their higher concentration to areas of
their lower concentration, it is called
diffusion
•
Osmosis
Osmosis is a physical phenomenon that has been exploited by
human beings since the early days of mankind
• Osmosis is a process which uses a semipermeable
A special case of diffusion of
membrane to separate solutions of different
water (solvent) that involves
concentration movement of molecules
• Solvent flows at a faster rate thana semipermeable
across the dissolved solids
from the side of low concentration
membrane istocalled
the side with higher
osmosis
concentration.
 Osmosis
Shift in Material Application

Earlier researchers studied Researchers started to study

the mechanism of osmosis 1960 Osmosis mechanism through
through natural materials synthetic materials
 Reverse Osmosis
• Reverse osmosis (RO) is a process where water
containing inorganic salts (minerals) and other
contaminants is forced under pressure through a
semipermeable membrane.
Reverse Osmosis
Osmosis versus Reverse Osmosis
Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis
 Forward Osmosis
• Forward osmosis (FO) is a technique that is driven by
natural osmotic pressure difference across a semi-
permeable membrane
• It extracts clean water from a lower solute concentration
feed stream (saline water) to a higher solute
concentration draw solution (DS).
• FO uses the osmotic pressure differential (π) across the
membrane, rather than hydraulic pressure differential (as
in RO), as the driving force for transport of water through
the membrane.
• Generally, inorganic solutes such as NaCl, MgCl2 and
K2SO4 are used as draw solutions in FO systems
• Innovative DS, such as water soluble mixtures of
ammonia and carbon dioxide, magnetic nano-particles,
dendrimers, polyelectrolytes, polymer hydrogels, and
hydroacid complexes have also been used
Forward Osmosis
 Membrane Desalination
• Membrane desalination is the process of separating
minerals from the source water using semipermeable
membranes.
• Two general types of technologies currently used for
membrane desalination are electrodialysis (ED) and
RO
• In ED systems, salts are separated from the source
water through the application of direct current.
• RO is a process in which the product water (permeate)
is separated from the salts contained in the source
water by pressure-driven transport through a
semipermeable membrane.
Filtration Spectrum
Industrial Applications
Boiler Feed Water Treatment: RO is used to reduce the solids
content of waters prior to feeding into boilers for the power
generation and other industries.

Pharmaceutical: Reverse osmosis is an approved treatment process

for the production of United States Pharmacopeia (USP) grade water
for pharmaceutical applications.

Food & Beverage: Water used to process food products and to

produce beverages is often treated by a reverse osmosis system

Power Generation Industry many power plant operators are

adopting RO membrane filtration as a water purification technology
because it does not require the use of hazardous chemicals. RO
provides additional operational and cost benefits as well.
Industrial Applications
Metal Finishing: RO systems have been successfully
applied to a variety of metal finishing operations
including several types of copper, nickel and zinc
electroplating; nickel acetate seal; and black dye.

Semiconductor: Reverse osmosis is an accepted

component of a treatment process to produce
ultrapure water in the semiconductor industry

Health Care: Purified water is an essential resource

in all medical and hospital environments
MEMBRANE PROCESSES
APPLICATIONS
 Membrane performance
• Membrane performance tends to naturally deteriorate
over time due to combination of material wear-and-
tear and irreversible fouling of the membrane
elements. Improvements of membrane element
polymer chemistry and production process have made
the membranes more durable and have extended their
useful life to over 5 years. Seawater pretreatment using
ultra and mictrofiltration membrane systems prior to
RO desalination is expected to further extend the
membrane useful life to over 7 years, thereby reducing
the costs for their replacement and the overall cost of
water.
Comparison between MF, UF, NF, RO
Process Membrane Typical Operating Typical Permeate
Driving Separation Structure Operating Description
Force Mechanism (pore size) Range, µm

Microfiltration Hydrostatic Sieve Macropores 0.08-2.0 Water +

Pressure (>50 nm) dissolved
Difference solutes
Ultrafiltration Hydrostatic Sieve Mesopores 0.005-0.2 Water +
Pressure (2-50 nm) small
Difference molecules
Nanofiltration Hydrostatic Sieve + Micropores 0.001-0.01 Water + very
Pressure diffusion + (<2 nm) small
Difference exclusion molecules,
ionic solutes

Reverse Hydrostatic Diffusion + Dense (<2 0.0001-0.001 Water + very

osmosis Pressure exclusion nm) small
Difference molecules,
ionic solutes
 Classification of Membranes
(Materials, Structure Shape, Module)
,

Materials
• Properties for the ideal RO membrane include that it is:
– resistant to chemical and microbial attack,
– mechanically and structurally stable over long operating periods
– have the desired separation characteristics for each particular
system
• Between the barrier layer and the support layer, a micro-porous
interlayer of polysulfonic polymer is added to enable the ultra-
thin barrier layer to withstand high pressure compression.
• The thickness of the barrier layer is reduced to minimize
resistance to the permeate transport.
• Membrane pore size is normally less than 0.6 nm to
achieve salt rejection consistently higher than 99%
 Membrane Classification

RO Membrane Types

Thin Film Composite

Cellulose Acetate
(TFC)- Polyamide
(CA) Membrane
Membrane

Thin Skin Layer Thin Barrier Layer

Feed Side Feed Side

Porous Support

Porous Sublayer Permeate Side Support Backing

Permeate Side
CA Membrane versus PA Membrane
• Cellulose acetate membranes are the

Cellulose
oldest form of commercial RO membrane
• They get their name from the material
used in their fabrication.
Acetate(CA) • CA membrane has an asymmetric
structure with a dense surface layer of

Membrane - about 0.1 - 0.2 μm which is responsible

for the salt rejection property.
• The rest of the membrane (100-200 μm )
Assymetric spongy and porous, is thick and supports
the thin surface layer
CA Membrane versus PA Membrane
• The term “thin-film composite” describes the manner in
which these membranes are fabricated
• It consist of layers of dissimilar materials joined together
Polyamide(PA) to form a single membrane
• A polyester web acting as structural support (120–
Membrane - 150µm thick), a microporous interlayer (about 40µm),
and an ultra-thin barrier layer on the upper surface
Thin Film (0.2µm)

Composite • The three layer configuration gives the desired

properties of high rejection of undesired materials (like
Membrane salts), high filtration rate, and good mechanical strength
• Thin-film composite membranes offer superior operating
performance, service life and overall economy
 CA versus PA
Parameters PA Membrane CA Membrane

Operating pH range 2-12 4-6

1 kg/sqcm = 98.0665 kPa
Operating pressure 15 30
1 bar = 100 kPa
range
(Kg/cm2 )
Salt Rejection (%) 99+ 98
Salt Rejection 99……98.7 98…….96
Change after 3
years (%)
Chlorine Tolerance <0.1 ppm 1 ppm
Membrane Fouling High Low
 Membrane Filtration Methods
• In dead-end filtration, all the feed is passed through the
membrane, impermeable substances gradually
accumulate on the surface.
• In cross-flow filtration, the feed is passed across the
membrane surface tangentially, and some feed is
recirculated, for keeping higher feed flow rates.
Impermeable substances are, thereby, partially washed
way and suppressed in accumulations on the surface.
 Classification of Membranes
Structure
1. Hollow fiber
2. Spiral wound
3. Tubular
4. Flat sheet membrane
 Classification of Membranes
Structure (Materials, Structure, Shape, Module)
 Membrane Module Suppliers
• There are four major membrane module
suppliers which provide RO membranes for
large scale desalination plants

DOW, USA
Others:
CSM, Korea
Tri-High, China
Toray, Japan

Hydranautics, USA

Toyobo, Japan
 Terminology
• Water enters the RO membrane under pressure and travels from the
feed end to the reject end.
• Some of this feed water passes through the membrane and
becomes purified. This water is called the RO product water. The
contaminants that were previously in the product water exit the
membrane in the reject water.
Feed Water Reject Water
(Concentrate)
RO Membrane

Product Water
(Permeate)
Flux – The number of gallons of permeate produced per square foot of
membrane area per day (GFD). Generally, flux rates are determined by the
feed water SDI.
Classification of Membranes
(Materials, Structure, Shape, Module)
Classification of Membranes
Classification of Membranes

http://www.toyobo-global.com/seihin/ro/tokucho.htm
 Why Reverse Osmosis?
Compared with other conventional water treatment
processes, reverse osmosis has
• proven to be the most efficient means of removing salts,
chemical contaminants and heavy metals, such as lead, from
drinking water.
• For waters with total dissolved solids of 200 or more, reverse
osmosis is less expensive than ion exchange.
• Even at total dissolved solids of less than 200, it is preferred
over ion exchange for removal of silica and organics.
• Compared with distillation, reverse osmosis use only a
fraction of the total energy and does not have high
temperature problems or scaling and corrosion.
• Today reverse osmosis systems have proven to be the most
economical and efficient means of improving the quality of
water.
Expanding International Market
Membranes of Different Sizes
• 2”
• 2.5”
• 4” (small scale)
• 8” (commercial, large scale)
• 16”
Membranes of different sizes
FILMTEC Membranes
Nomenclature of elements < 8”
Membranes of different sizes
FILMTEC Membranes
Nomenclature of element - 8”
• Eight-inch elements are always 8 inches in
diameter and 40 inches in length.
• They are named according to the actual active
membrane area in square feet
• For example the BW30-400 element has an
active membrane area of 400 square feet
 Membranes of different sizes
• TW30 – High rejection brackish water FT30 membrane,
typically used for Tap Water RO
• BW30 – High rejection Brackish Water FT30 membrane for
brackish water RO
• SW30 – SeaWater RO membrane, typically used for low
salinity or cold seawater RO and high salinity brackish water
RO
• SW30HR – SeaWater RO membrane with High salt Rejection,
typically used for single pass seawater desalination
• SW30HRLE - SeaWater RO membrane with High salt
Rejection, typically used for Low Energy seawater
desalination
• SW30XLE – membrane for SeaWater desalination with
eXtremely Low Energy consumption
 Element Size - Filmtec
• The standard length of a membrane element is 40
inches (1,016 mm)
• For small and compact systems shorter elements are
available, such as 14 inches (356 mm) and 21 inches
(533 mm)
• Home Drinking Water RO elements are 12 inches long
and 1.8 inches in diameter to fit into nominal 2-inch
I.D. housings.
• The standard diameter of FILMTEC elements is 2.5, 4
and 8 inches (61 – 99 – 201 mm).
• They are sized to fit into 2.5, 4 and 8 inch pressure
vessels respectively.
Available Sizes and Flow Performance Range
Review
Global Market Outlook
 Global Market Outlook

•Thermal desalination, 47% in

2002 is 23% in the year 2012
•Reverse Osmosis 22.4% in
2002 is 63% in the year 2012.
Sea Water Desalination Present &
Future
Parameter Year 2012 Within 5 years Within 20
Years
Cost of Water 0.5 to 0.8 0.4 to 0.65 0.26 to 0.4
US $ / m3 (US $/ K gal) (2.0 – 3.0) (1.5 – 2.5) (1.0 – 1.5)
Construction Cost 1188 to 6700 1050 to 6000 525 to 925
US $/ m3 (MUS$/K gal) (4.5 – 8.0) (4.0 – 6.5) (2.0 – 3.5)
Power Use of SWRO 2.5 to 2.77 2.1 to 2.65 1.32 to 1.71
kW-hr/ m3 (kW-hr/Kgal) (9.5 – 10.5) (8.0 – 10.0) (5.0 – 6.5)
Membrane Productivity 24.6 to 47.3 34 to 56.8 94.6 to 151
m3/day/Membrane(gal) (6500 – 12500) (9000 – 15000) (25000-40000)
Membrane Useful Life 5 to 7 7 to 10 10 to 15
(Years)
Plant Recovery Ratio% 45 to 50 50 to 55 55 to 65
New generation membranes