In water-scarce regions, desalinating brackish groundwater
can represent an important alternative resource for water utilities.
High-pressure membranes that use reverse osmosis and nanofiltration
are recognized as a viable desalination technology.
Although new membranes are being rapidly introduced into the
market, there is no general, systematic protocol for evaluating
their performance. Developing such a protocol will allow utilities
to standardize membrane-screening procedures, ultimately benefiting
the manufacturers as well as the utilities. This article presents
a step-by-step approach to pilot-testing the new-generation
membranes. The proposed steps are basic data collection, comparative
pilot-testing, optimization pilot-testing, membrane
autopsy, and feasibility analysis. The pilot-testing conducted
according to this protocol showed clear performance improvements
between an established membrane and a new-generation
membrane. The testing also demonstrated that the new membranes
have greatly improved operating pressures, which could
lead to substantial operational cost savings. Includes 18 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. 98 - No. 4 |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 390 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 11 |
| Published : | 04/01/2006 |
