As part of the 1999 International Desalination Association (IDA) World Congress in San Diego, the American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) held a Sunday seminar on water treatment costs, specifically to review a computerprogram (WTCost) to define the capital and operation and maintenance costs for membrane water plants. The US Bureau of Reclamation sponsored this endeavor. Also involved in the endeavor has been the Universities of Houston, the Colorado School of Mines and the US National Institute for Standards and Technology. Programmers have taken the Bureau model and transformed it into a Visual Basic application on CD-ROM. The program, as it evolved, is a costing model, not a design tool, suitable for use by managers, engineers and other trained individuals. It can be employed to define a given membrane system as well as be used in comparative studies. WTCost covers costs associated with reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration and microfiltration, various pretreatment unit operations, electrical and chemical consumptions, electrodialysis and ion exchange. All inputs required for cost estimations have default values for users who are not sure of the technology; these default values can be over-ridden when better information is available. The program is equipment supplier neutral. This paper presents a broad outline of this computer program, which has been validated by a number of experts in the field. The model has been found to be quite reasonable in projecting water treatment costs for a large number of brackish and seawater applications. The authors should be contacted to obtain the CD-ROM disk. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 470 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 16 |
| Published : | 06/01/2001 |
