Impact of the Raw Water Seasonal Variations on the Reverse Osmosis Performance: Khenifra Plant, Morocco

抄録

Reverse osmosis (RO) plays an outstanding role in water desalination worldwide. Performance of this technique depends on membrane fouling and the raw water seasonal variations, especially temperature and raw water salt concentration. Hence, to neutralize the impact of temperature and feed concentration on the performance parameters, the data collected from the brackish surface water plant were standardized through the use of the American Society for Testing and Materials methods. The value of this normalization is to be able to discern the performance variation which is due to the membrane aging and the membrane fouling, scaling or degradation. The present research investigates the real industrial results gathered from the first experience of brackish surface water demineralization by RO in Morocco. The results obtained evidently show that the feed water is subject to serious seasonal variations in terms of feed temperature and feed salts concentration, which noticeably affect the feed pressure, membrane permeability, and permeate conductivity. The standardized permeate flow, standardized pressure drop, and standardized salt passage show that the performance of the plant was steady all over the period of the monitoring and the observed performance decline-was due to membrane fouling.