SOUTHERN SEAWATER MICROFILTRATION PILOT PLANT TRIAL – THE

IMPACTS OF SHOCK CHLORINATION

Authors: Marc Ferguson, Sam Towndrow, Gavin Broom, Michael Jovanoski, Ben Boardman and
Sjoerd Sibma

Presenter: Marc Ferguson

Process Engineer – Water Corporation – Australia

Abstract

A microfiltration (MF) pilot plant was trialed at the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant (PSDP) from
August 2009 to December 2010. The trial was used to confirm design flux rates, baseline data and
optimise the chemical cleaning regime for a 360 ML/day MF plant that will be used for pre-treatment at
the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant (SSDP).

The feed to the pilot plant was taken from the discharge of the seawater forwarding pumps at PSDP
which is periodically shock chlorinated at the ocean intake using sodium hypochlorite. This gave a
valuable insight into the impact of shock chlorination on the performance of the pilot plant.

The pilot plant was a Siemens Memcor® trial unit using the L20V modules, the L20V membranes are of
a PVDF material with a nominal pore size of 0.04 microns. The plant performance and filtrate water
quality achieved at PSDP during the trial exceeded the success criteria in the trial protocol. This has
given a positive outlook for MF operation at the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant which will be
constructed at Binningup which is approximately 140 km south of Perth.

Wor World Congress/Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC), Perth, Western Australia September 4-9, 2011
REF: IDAWC/PER11-276
I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Shock chlorination, also referred to as intermittent chlorination is undertaken to control the build up of
marine life on pipelines and equipment that is constantly in contact with seawater. Shock chlorination
does not prevent the build up of marine life and the presence of common oceanic foulants such as
mollusc shells and barnacle deposits will be unavoidable, however the extent of growth can be
controlled to manageable levels.

Materials selection is a factor that is often considered in order to minimise the potential for attachment
of marine life, and thereby extend the interval between shock chlorination procedures. Experience at the
PSDP has shown extensive growth is experienced on the intake pipelines constructed from GRP. It can
therefore be reasoned that the growth of marine life is unavoidable in seawater reverse osmosis
installations and designers are basically faced with three options:
1. Do nothing and accept growth, potentially to an extent that could adversely affect plant
operation.
2. Practice shock chlorination or other techniques that would manage growth to an acceptable level.
3. Practice continuous chlorination or other techniques to prevent all marine growth.

A consideration with the incorporation of membrane pre-treatment upstream of reverse osmosis systems
is the potential to damage the fibers in the membrane systems by hard debris from marine life generated
in the shock chlorination process. This adds a further dimension in selecting an operational protocol
based on the use of shock chlorination.

The design of the SSDP plant has been based upon intermittent shock chlorination with the flexibility to
vary the chlorine concentration in seawater, intervals between shock chlorination procedures and the
dosing period. Experience at the PSDP has shown that infrequent chlorination with periods between
dosing events of up to 2 weeks can lead to high amount of marine debris reporting to the downstream
pre-treatment system. In the case of the PSDP plant that uses dual media filtration this is not a major
issue because the process is relatively robust with respect to mechanical damage caused by the debris.

The current proposal for the SSDP plant is to dose more frequently with a few days between dosing
events. The rationale for this was to prevent potential damage to the fibers by sharp material generated
by fracture of the shells of large marine organisms such as molluscs and barnacles.

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REF: IDAWC/PER11-276
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II. PILOT TRIAL AT PSDP

2.1 Plant Location

To obtain results from a pilot plant trial that are directly applicable to a full scale plant there is no
substitute for conducting the trial on the same feed water as the full scale plant. The pilot plant will then
be exposed to transient and seasonal variations that will be representative of full scale plant operation.

In the case of SSDP project this was not possible because environmental licensing did not permit
installation of a pilot plant at the Binningup site. A trial was therefore conducted at the Water
Corporation’s seawater desalination plant located at Kwinana, Perth. This plant draws its seawater
source from Cockburn Sound, a semi enclosed seawater body that also provides a breeding ground for
mussels. The feed water quality and the potential for marine breakdown products resulting from shock
chlorination processes is likely to be much more severe than the SSDP plant that draws its feed seawater
from an open ocean intake.

2.2 Pilot Plant

The pilot plant incorporated equipment to replicate the full scale plant that will be constructed for the
Southern Seawater Desalination Plant. The pre-treatment system for this plant is based upon a Siemens
Memcor microfiltration system with an upstream array of 80 micron wedgewire strainers. The incoming
seawater is screened by two band screens with 6mm mesh; this is slightly different from the band
screens at the PSDP plant which have a 3 mm mesh.

The pilot plant used a Memcor(R) XP2 trial unit, as seen in Figure 1, that has a sophisticated control
system that allows the unit to closely replicate the control system on full scale plants. The trial unit uses
the same membrane modules and housing materials that are used on the full scale plant, and has been
demonstrated to replicate full scale plant performance with very few scale up issues.

Features included:

• VSD pump flow control to enable the unit to operate at constant flux

• All pumps, instruments and wetted materials are compatible with seawater

• Comprehensive HMI on the unit for displaying unit operation and changing control parameters

• Resistance/Permeability calculations that measure backwash and CIP efficiencies

• Ability to backwash on time, or delta TMP which allows for sudden changes in feedwater quality

• Diagnostics during filtration, backwash, membrane integrity test and CIP that troubleshoot
operation for the operator

• Custom Datalogger, that records data when the unit is operating

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REF: IDAWC/PER11-276
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 Figure 1: MF Pilot Plant Unit at PSDP

2.3 Test Program

The MF pilot plant trial was employed to confirm flux rates and to optimise the chemical cleaning
regime. The trial program is summarised in Table 1 below:

Trial Objectives
Run 1 • Baseline Data
• Various chlorine concentrations in MW
Run 2
• MW/CIP temperature trial
• CIP rinse process
Run 3
• CIP make-up water quality
Run 4 • In-situ SBS neutralization of spent chlorine MW/CIP solution
Run 5 • Pre MW/CIP rinse assessment
Run 6 • Chemical-free MW/CIP cleans

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 • Acid cleaning with no flushing
Run 7
• Seawater as CIP make-up water assessment
• Chlorine shock dosing to feed water
Run 8
• Neutralised chlorine CIP solution for acid CIP make-up water

Table 1: Memcor MF Pilot Trial Program

The design flux rate for the SSDP plant and the pilot plant was 50 L/m2.h based upon all membrane
filters being available, and the flux increasing to 65 L/m2.h when a unit is out of service for cleaning.
For both plants the design was based upon maintaining a constant flux.

The impact of shock chlorination was not a primary consideration; however it soon became apparent
that shock chlorination produced a high suspended solids load on the pre-strainer and occasionally
penetrated through to the membrane filter which affected performance during this period.

Cleaning agents used in the set pilot plant cleaning regime were:

• Sodium Hypochlorite, which is used to target and remove the organic components that may foul
a membrane. The hypochlorite provides the chlorine concentrations used for cleaning and listed
in Table 2.

• Sulphuric Acid, which is used to target inorganic fouling.

• Citric Acid, used as a chelating agent when added with sulphuric acid to target inorganic
foulants.

The cleaning regime used for the pilot plant is shown in Table 2. This is also the regime proposed for
the full scale plant.

Monday Wednesday Friday

Week 1 Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm

Week 2 Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Chlorine MW@ 250 ppm Acid MW @ pH of 2

Week 3 Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm

Week 4 Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Chlorine MW @ 250 ppm Acid + Citric CIP @ pH of 2
Chlorine CIP @ 625 ppm

Table 2: Monthly Cleaning Schedule

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2.4 Shock Chlorination Protocol

The pilot plant was supplied with a branch line taken from the operational PSDP plant and therefore the
pilot plant trial did not have the ability to vary the shock chlorination protocol which had been based
upon optimising the performance of the PSDP plant.

The protocol used at PSDP was:

• Undertaken every 1 to 2 weeks at a random time

• Intake dose of 15 mg/L free chlorine

• 30 to 60 minute duration

III. OBSERVATIONS FROM PILOT TRIAL

3.1 Effects on Availability and Production

The impact of shock chlorination was:

• Faster rise rate of trans-membrane pressure (TMP)

• Reduced time between backwashes when TMPs were high

• High increase in solids loading on strainers requiring more frequent flushing

The initiation of shock chlorination whilst the TMP was high would cause the pilot plant to trigger a
premature backwash before the set backwash time. This caused the unit to backwash more frequently
than normal therefore impacting on the filtering time and filtrate production. The MF pilot unit
experienced much more stable filtration when shock chlorinations were scheduled for shortly after a
chlorine MW/CIP, whereby TMPs were relatively at their lowest.

The pilot plant used cleanable 80 micron strainers which invariably required thorough cleaning
immediately after a shock chlorination event.

3.2 Effects on Feed Water Quality

The impact on the solid loading on the pilot plant at PSDP is shown in Table 3 and Figure 2. Turbidity
of the seawater was noticed to rise by up to 500% of background level during shock chlorination; it then
dropped off over the ensuing operation as the suspended solids produced by the process were washed
through the plant.

The turbidity was taken from the main plant turbidity transmitter that registers the turbidity downstream
of the seawater forwarding pumps. The suspended solids results were taken from samples on the pilot
plant.

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Sample Frequency (mins) Post Band Screen Post 80 micron Strainer
TSS (mg/L) TSS (mg/L)
Pre-shock 1.2 1.1
10 minutes after start of dosing 1.3 1
20 2.1 1.2
30 1.3 1.2
40 3 2.5
50 3.5 3
90 2.6 2
120 2 1

Table 3: TSS profile during shock chlorination

Figure 2: Turbidity profile during shock chlorination over 24 hour period

The 80 micron weave-wire strainer screen had trapped most of the large solid debris produced during
shock chlorination as the solid range was predominately greater than 80 microns. The debris caught on
the strainer through one of the shock chlorination events can be seen in Figure 3:

IDA World Congress – Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC), Perth, Western Australia September 4-9, 2011
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 Figure 3: Solids caught on an 80 micron strainer just during shock chlorination

3.3 Effects on Trans-Membrane Pressure

The trans-membrane pressure (TMP) is the differential pressure across the membrane at a given flow
rate. The TMP is the absolute measure which results from the filter cake forming on the membrane
surface as well as resistance to flow from the membrane itself. Due to the poorer quality water
introduced during shock chlorination the buildup of the filter cake on the membrane surface happened at
a quicker rate, which resulted in TMP rising at a quicker rate. Figure 4 below shows the extreme case
over an extended shock chlorination period at PSDP where this effect was amplified significantly.

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 Figure 4: TMP during Normal Operation compared to Shock Chlorination Period

3.4 Effects on Process Control (Instrumentation)

Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) is an online measured parameter that is commonly used as an
indicator of free chlorine upstream of the reverse osmosis (RO) system during shock chlorination. A
common operational issue associated with the ORP analysers is the drifting values experienced after
seawater containing free chlorine has passed through the analyser.

During the pilot plant trial it was noticed that the ORP analyser was subjected to a sudden spike in ORP
in the order of 900 mV, it would return to a higher than pre-shock steady-state value as shown in Figure
5. The steady state value has drifted around 30-40 mV above the normal background level before that of
the shock chlorination. A note that chlorine residual was manually sampled at the same sample point and
registered almost zero within 2 hours since first detection of free chlorine.

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 Figure 5: ORP on Filtrate line during a shock chlorination

As an extra measure of safety to the upstream RO system; SSDP has incorporated online chlorine
analysers utilizing the DPD method in conjunction with the use of ORP analysers for chlorine detection
in the filtrate. DPD method has proven to work well to measure free chlorine levels in seawater whereas
other measures fail.

3.5 Effects on Filtrate Quality

Filtrate quality on the pilot unit remained fairly constant during shock chlorination since the majority of
debris introduced was larger than 0.1 micron, which is larger than the nominal pore size of the
membrane. Turbidity, SDI and TSS of the filtrate had almost negligible change in the filtrate quality.
Displayed below in Figure 6 is the SDI of the feed seawater and filtrate sampled during both normal
operation and shock chlorination on separate days.

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 Figure 6: SDI of seawater feed and filtrate during normal operation and shock chlorination

It was noticed on the pilot plant that after the shock chlorine dosing had ended and the chlorine front had
passed through the membranes, chlorine residual was still being detected in the filtrate at minor
quantities (0.01-0.1 mg/L) for a period of time. This was due to the fact that chlorine in the membrane
fibers was slowly dissipating back into the filtrate.

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IV. CONCLUSION

Shock chlorination has been shown to be a very effective method of controlling the buildup of marine
life in a seawater intake system, but it does lead to short-term deterioration of seawater quality as a
result of the debris produced by the chlorination process.

Shock chlorinating an open ocean intake will place an increased load on all solid removal barriers due to
the varied size range of solids introduced. The range of solids will be from the micron size, such as finer
silts all the way through to larger solids like mollusc shells, byssal threads, smaller debris like mollusc
internals and larvae.

The impact on a membrane filtration system can be minimised by installing upstream strainers that
would remove the bulk of the solids load created by the shock chlorination process. The current
recommendation by Siemens is that the aperture in upstream strainers should not be greater than 80
microns.

The trials indicated that shock chlorination can cause a moderate increase in TMP rate with the potential
for triggering a backwash before the set filtration time interval when TMP is high. The implication of
this on a large plant is that the membrane filtration units will queue and sequentially carryout out a
backwash as opposed to spacing backwashes at regular intervals. The potential on downstream processes
has to be investigated should this happen to ensure their operation is not compromised.

It could also be reasoned that the amount of solids generated in a shock chlorination process is reflective
of the interval between shock chlorination procedures. Undertaking procedures more frequently will
limit the build up of marine growth and therefore reduce the solids loading reporting to the strainers and
membrane filter.

Chlorine from the procedure will pass through the membrane filter and require dechlorination on the
filtrate line. The sizing and control of the dechlorination system, most likely based on sodium bisulphite
addition, should cater for extended overrun periods after cessation of chlorine addition. This is likely to
be longer than that associated with conventional dual media filters because membrane filters will not
have the chlorine demand as a result of biomass entrapped within a filter bed.

In conclusion, a shock chlorination process will not have a destructive impact on a straining and
membrane filtration process providing it is designed to accept a step change in solids loading. This
loading results from the presence of marine organisms that are dislodged and possibly mechanically
broken down by pumping systems and chemically broken down by reaction with chlorine.

V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Southern Seawater Alliance acknowledges the assistance provided by Degremont Suez Australia
who allowed the pilot plant to be located at their Kwinana desalination plant.

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