Olivier amiot reverse_osmosis

Reverse Osmosis
Where do we stand today & where are we heading
Present and Future

Agenda
Introducing myself
1. Osmosis and reverse osmosis, facts and history
2. Reverse Osmosis units : how it works
3. Markets
4. Technical Evolutions and Trends
5. Future development

Olivier AMIOT
• Chemistry and Chemical Eng, 20 years of prof.experience
• Sales Manager and Service Equipment Manager with Nalco for 17 years,
Business developer on new markets (Institutional, Glass-manufacturing, Dairies, District
Utilities, Pulp & Paper Utilities, Middle market manufacturing)
 Leader in launching new technologies with new customers’ approaches (Coil-Flo, Value-
Added services, MetroModel, Legionella Pneumophilia)
Recognized as a Sales-Leader and Water consultant in 2005
• I set up Yret Solutions for helping my customers from industries and institutional
segments improve the performances and results of their water systems :
Increase availability of their assets (Productivity, Manage Costs),
Reduce their risks and environmental impact (S.H.& E),
Increase performance in Hygiene, Safety and Productivity,
Increase and Sustain life of equipment.
contact@yretsolutions.comOlivier AMIOT 3

1- Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis

1- Osmosis and Reverse Osmosis
• Discovered in 1748 by Jean-Antoine Nollet
• In 1854, Thomas Graham invented the term of Osmosis, from the Greek word
meaning push/pressure
• Osmosis is one of the mechanism explaining the degradation of polyesters
plastics (boats)
Facts and History

Osmosis : water flow through a membrane

Osmosis in nature : blood cells cytolisys
Dehydration :
Sports
Warm and dry
weather
Cytolysis :
Low salinity outside

• First research started during the 40’s
by request of the US Gov.
• First application in 1959 for water
desalination
• First customer : NASA
• Development for water desalination
started during the 70’s
8
Reverse Osmosis
Apply pressure on the strong solution : water will flow from strong solution to pure water
contact@yretsolutions.comOlivier AMIOT

2- Reverse Osmosis Technical Facts

Typical Filtration Process
Solids quickly foul the membrane
Cross Flow Filtration process
Solids are swept away by water flow
2- Reverse Osmosis Technology
It is a mechanical filtration process

One Influent
Two effluents : permeate and concentrate
High velocity prevent fouling of the filtering media
11
Cross Flow Filtration

3 major components always found in RO units :
1. Filtration unit : decrease suspended solids, risk of fouling
2. High pressure pump : activation of RO
3. Membranes
12
Major Components
WASTE
PRODUCT
HP Pump
Filtration Unit

13contact@yretsolutions.comOlivier AMIOT

Two materials have been used for membranes :
1. Cellulose Acetate
2. Polyamide (thin film composite membrane)
• Acetate
Historically first, Cheap
pH range between 4-8, Temp < 35°C, low resistance to bacterias
• Polyamide
Better resistance to hydrolysis, and bacterias,
pH from 4-11, higher temperature
14
Membrane Technologies

• Polyamide thin film membrane :
0.2µm
• Microporous substrate layer :
polysulfone, 40µm
• Reinforcing base : polyester 100-
120µm
• Pore size around 0.0001 µm
15
Polyamide membrane film composite typical thickness

16
Typical membrane assembly spiral wound

17
Spiral wound flow patern

• Removes nonionic impurities and dissolved solids (i.e. organics, silica, bacteria)
• Reduction of hazardous chemical storage and handling associated with ion
exchange
• Economic advantages increase with increasing feed TDS
18
Advantages of RO

• Salt Rejection : tells how effective the RO membranes are removing contaminants
• The higher the salt rejection, the better the system is performing. A low salt rejection
can mean that the membranes require cleaning or replacement.
• Recovery : amount of water that is being 'recovered' as good permeate water
• The higher the recovery % means less water to drain as concentrate and saving more
permeate water.
Performance of RO

• Concentrate is rejected and this can be a significant volume of water.
• RO membranes reject a fixed percentage of feedwater ions
Further treatment is required for many applications.
• Ultimate filter which is easily fouled:
Increased operating costs
Reduced membrane life
20
Disadvantages of RO

21
RO Membrane Problems
Suspended solids
fouling
Precipitation Bio fouling Dissolve
Colloids and
solids, High
FI
Filtration
unit
Hardness,
sulfates, high
LI
Sequestrant,
softener
Bacterial and
living material
contamination
UF units, MOL-
Lik, biocides
(!!)
Oxidizing
compounds,
aggressive
chemicals
Active carbon

22
Scaling in the spacer

23
Fouled membrane

24
Over-pressure effects on membrane

• Act pro-actively
 Filtration stage
 Anti-scalant adapted technologies (either soft or sequestrant)
 MOL Lik
 Follow-up indicators (pressure, recovery, salt rejection, flowrates) : carefull
about normalized values
• Maintenance
 Cleaning process adapted to type of fouling/membranes
25
Troubleshooting

3- Reverse Osmosis Market Applications

INDUSTRIAL WATER
PURIFICATION
RURAL WELL
WATER
PURIFICATION
MUNICIPAL
WATER
PURIFICATION
MEDICAL DEVICE
MANUFACTURING
SEA WATER
DESALINATION
WASTE WATER
RECYCLING
BRACKISH WELL
WATER
DESALINATION
CAR-WASHES
"SPOT-FREE RINSE"
FOOD PRODUCTS
And
COSMETIC PRODUCTS
MAIN
APPLICATIONS
for
REVERSE
OSMOSIS
LABORATORY
WATER PURIFICATION
BOTTLED DRINKING
WATER PRODUCTION
PHARMACEUTICAL
WATER PURIFICATION
Reverse
Osmosis
Applications
9/29/2016
27

• Drinking Water production
 Brackish Water desalination
 Sea Water desalination
• Water purification for industry
• Waste water treatment
• Process Concentration : Maple Syrup, Dairy Polishing, etc…
=> Desalination  50% of RO usage
Main water purification applications

• Salinity is 2000 mg/L – 10000 mg/L
• Pressures of 14 bar – 21 bar are used to achieve rejection coefficients greater
than 90% and to obtain water with saline concentrations of lower than 500 mg/L
• Values recommended by the WHO as a requirement for potable water production
• Costs for production 0.25 $US/L of treated water
Brackish Water Desalination

• Salinity of this type of water is 30000 mg/L – 40000 mg/L.
• Working pressures of 50 bar – 70 bar.
• Operating costs of this type of treatment plant are estimated to be 1 – 1.25$US/ L
of treated water.
Sea Water Desalination

• RO allows water of the quality demanded by the electronic industry and industry
to be obtained from drinking water (concentration of dissolved solids < 200
mg/L).
• The main problem with this type of installation is the bio-fouling of the
membranes
• Water for process and utilities.
Water Purification for Industry

32
Water Purification for Industry
• High purity water requirement
• No necessity of a complex demin
chain
• Safety (Acid, Soda)
 RO has allowed more process to
work with high purity water

Waste Water Treatment
• Wastewaters contain
organic contaminants, including pharmaceutical compounds,
pathogens,
disinfection by-products,
pesticides.
• Some are less affected by biological degradation by bacteria in
activated sludge process.
• High water solubility, they are dissolved in water and not being removed in
the sludge
• Phenol based molecules
• RO process for separation is a key step in the safe recovery of water
from wastewater source.

Process Concentration
• Maple Syrup Concentration
• Dairy Polishing
• RO instead of heating and evaporation

Cow water re-use
• Case study : United Milk, Westbury (UK)

Cow water re-use
Environmental Benefits :
• Reduce Water inlet
• Reduce effluent discharge
• Improve heat recovery
Problem :
• In some countries : water sanitation requirement

4- Evolution and Trends
• A major subsector of RO applications is
the desalination of water. From 2005 to
2010, daily production of desalinated
water increased from 30 million m3/day
to 60 million m3/day, a growth rate of
15% per year (National Geographic,
“Water – Our Thirsty World: A Special
Issue,” April 2010)
• the membrane market size for
desalination alone will be $1.84 billion
in the year 2020
38
Size of market for desalination

• Progress in automation of module
manufacturing
• Gluing of membrane is more precise :
reduce amount of glue
• Technology of spacer
 “More membrane”
 Reduced thickness of collection channel
39
Membrane module evolutions

Increased exchange surface :
• 340 ft2 in the 90’s
• 365 ft2 in the 2000’s
• 400 and 440 ft2 in the 2010’s
Between 18% and 30% of surface availability for filtration
Two schools for RO :
• Classical filtration + 400 ft2 membrane, spacer 34 mil (864 µm)
• UF + 440 ft2 membrane, spacer 27 mil (686 µm)
40

• Better control of pressure inside vessel (less pressure drop across membranes)
• Better design and construction methods
 Carter/tubes can be built now for 8 modules instead of 6
41

Pressure for industrial, utilities applications
• Last 15 years :
• Pressure dropped from 15-18b
• Then to 10-12 b
• Less then 9b
• Claims for brackish in Low Pressure membrane : 5b.
42

1st objectives : on sea-waters
• Increase retention, but lower pressure
• Main problem : water needed inside the module, on concentrate side for salt
washing : need to work on recycling
UHP Membrane (100-150b)
• Interest for working on concentrate, and recycling of water
43
Membrane future evolutions

5- Future Development
New application and new technology

45
New Application

• The recent use of RO in reclamation of wastewater is done in GWR facility in
Orange County for indirect potable use.
A new application : GWRS

Location : Orange County, California
The Orange County Water Basin was becoming salty due
to overpumping of fresh ground water and pacific sea
water penetration
Instead of rejecting waste water directly to Pacific, it is
treated and injected into ground to refill the water basins
47
Ground Water Replenishement System (GWRS)

Quality was achieved using reverse osmosis
Capacity of production : 492 000 m3/day
48
Ground Water Replenishement System (GWRS)

Drought :
Sea water
infiltration
Step 2 : RO
treated waste
water injection
Sea water
pushed back

50
New Technology

Publication source :
Carbon nanotube membranes for water purification: A bright future in
water desalination,
Rasel Das et al, Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center, University of
Malaya, NUS Centre for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology (NUSCNN) Singapore
Industrial development :
NanoH2O launched first industrial production of CNT
NanoH2O was acquired in april 2014 by LG Chem
Carbon Nanotubes membranes

• Why ?
• Desalination has a high cost due to high energy load
• High pressure pump : 50 to 70 bars
• Fouling and low resistance to biological fouling
• Low resistance to some aggressive chemical compounds
Carbon Nanotubes vs Polyamide

Advantages :
• Non-polar tubes : strong invitation for polar water molecule crossing the channel
• Self-cleaning
• Anti-fouling
Benefits :
• Reduced Energy load
• Eased maintenance
Carbon Nanotubes membranes claims

54
Carbon Nanotubes membranes diagram

• Sea water and brackish water desalination, no industrial applications claimed so
far
• Competition says : distribution of tube channel is uneven
55
Carbon Nanotubes limitations
Promising technology but needs to be confirmed
A competitor of LG Chem is also launching CNT

Olivier amiot reverse_osmosis

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