Over the past 12 months, a new membrane integrity monitoring system has been
designed for integration into a full-scale membrane system. The system, commonly
known as the Medusa Integrity Monitoring System, has a dual analysis approach
using a combination of laser turbidity and statistical signal processing to determine
the integrity status of a membrane system. On pilot scale membrane systems, this
monitoring system has demonstrated the ability to detect an integrity loss as low as
one broken fiber in a module containing more than 10,000 fibers with membrane
feedwater turbidity less than 1 NTU1.
Since this initial testing, the development of a full-scale Medusa integrity system
has been completed and a system has been installed on a full-scale membrane rack
located in Westminster, Colorado. The drinking water plant is a new membrane
facility and was in the final stages of construction at the time of the Medusa
installation. Since both the water treatment plant and the membrane integrity
monitoring system were new, this presented an opportunity to use the Medusa
system to monitor the membrane filtrate stream for indication of integrity loss and
unexpected changes during process adjustments as the facility was brought online.
The objective of this paper was to cover the transition from pilot monitoring to fullscale
integration and application of the Medusa integrity monitoring system. One key
objective was to confirm the integrity of each membrane module as the water
treatment plant was brought on-line. After the startup, the Medusa sensors would
be used to monitor the membrane filtrate as changes in the treatment train upstream
of the membranes are performed.
The application of this new membrane integrity monitoring system was the first
full-scale effort to address shortcomings that have become significant issues with
other integrity monitoring techniques. These issues included the need for high
sensitivity and continuous on-line monitoring for integrity loss, and the ability to
quickly and easily identify the compromised module. The multi-plexing approach
utilized by the Medusa monitoring system provided a methodology to address these
issues in an economical manner. The partnership between the instrument design
team and the new membrane water treatment facility was designed to expose the
strengths and weaknesses of the integrity monitoring system. The goal of this
testing was to prove that the Medusa system will provide greater confidence now that the
membrane system has been producing high quality water continuously over time. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 3.1 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 18 |
| Published : | 03/05/2003 |
