Nonlinear Behavior of Permeate Flux in Full-Scale Reverse Osmosis Processes
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 11
Abstract
Permeate flux is a key design and operating parameter for the reverse osmosis (RO) process. It has been widely observed from laboratory studies that permeate flux is linearly related to transmembrane pressure, but it has been noted that such a simple linear relationship may not be strictly applicable to a typical full-scale RO process where a long membrane channel is employed. A pilot-scale RO system with a 4-m-long membrane channel was used in this study to investigate the behavior of permeate flux under various operating conditions. It was noted that the linear relationship between the average permeate flux and transmembrane pressure was only true when the RO system was operating at low transmembrane pressure or recovery. The average permeate flux deviated substantially from the linear relationship as the transmembrane pressure increased. It was speculated that thermodynamic equilibrium between the osmotic pressure in the membrane channel and the transmembrane pressure of the RO process might become the limiting factor of RO processes under certain circumstances.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the Singapore Millennium Foundation for providing a Ph.D. scholarship to K. G. Tay. This work was supported in part by the National University of Singapore (Project No. R-264-000-110-112). We are also grateful to Miss Serene Goh Sui Lin for her assistance in carrying out the experiments in her final year project during her attachment stint in our laboratory.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 11 • November 2005
Pages: 1481 - 1487
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 28, 2003
Accepted: Mar 9, 2005
Published online: Nov 1, 2005
Published in print: Nov 2005
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