Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) has embarked on a three-phase research and
demonstration program to develop and implement a new, lower cost, seawater desalination
process, using membrane technology, to supplement their current imported and local water
supplies. Water conservation and water recycling efforts alone at Long Beach are not expected
to offset the increasing demands for new potable water supplies and potential reductions and
restrictions to the present imported water supplies. Located in coastal Southern California, Long
Beach has access to Pacific Ocean seawater and saline groundwater of seawater quality as
potential new water sources. The three-phase seawater desalination program of the Two-stage
Nanofiltration Membrane Desalination Process includes Pilot Testing (Phase 1), Prototype
Seawater Desalination Testing Facility Design, Construction and Operation (Phase 2) and
Demonstration Plant Design, Construction and Operation (Phase 3). The Phase 1 pilot-scale
testing, which began in 2001, consisted of 4-inch (102-mm) diameter nanofiltration (NF)
membranes in a proprietary two-stage (two-pass) configuration at a capacity of 9,000-USgallons
per day (gpd) [34 m3/day]. During this pilot testing, the method demonstrated that it can achieve
treated water quality equivalent to single-pass seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination
process at lower operating pressures and energy cost. Due to the success of the pilot-scale
testing and promise of this desalination process for the full-scale, LBWD has applied for a patent
on this innovative method and is proceeding to the next phase of the program. LBWD has two
research partners for the program, the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Phase 2 consists of testing full-scale 8-inch
(203-mm) diameter NF membrane elements in a 150,000-gpd (568 m3/day) prototype plant and
having a side-by-side comparison with a 150,000-gpd (568 m3/day) conventional seawater
reverse osmosis (RO) membrane desalination plant. If Phase 2 Prototype Plant testing proves
successful, LBWD will proceed to a full-scale demonstration plant, with a capacity of up to 10-
million USgallons per day (37,850 m3/day). This paper summarizes the Phase 1 pilot-testing,
details the current Prototype Seawater Desalination Testing Facility phase, and briefly describes
the future Demonstration Plant phase (Phase 3). Includes 9 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 22 |
| Published : | 11/15/2004 |
