Performance model for reverse osmosis

To meet the increasing global demand for freshwater, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has become a widely used technology to produce freshwater from seawater. A SWRO system consists of different components such as pumps, membranes, valves, and energy recovery devices. While it may be simple for process designers to understand the individual performance of each piece of equipment, the performance of an entire SWRO system can be complex and counter-intuitive. Furthermore, SWRO processes are energy-intensive; thus, to minimize the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) of the process, it is of utmost importance that the performance of the system is monitored in real-time. Due to periodic changes in seawater quality and weather conditions, the operating parameters in a SWRO plant need continuous tweaking to minimize energy consumption and optimize the use of chemicals such that product water quality requirements are met. This calls for the need of a performance monitoring and optimization tool for SWRO. Since the advent of RO in 1950, such a system has never existed. Here, we present the first performance model for reverse osmosis (PMRO) for monitoring and optimizing the performance of SWRO assets;the developed model predicts the SEC of an operating SWRO plant with 93 % accuracy.