Optimum design of reverse osmosis seawater desalination system considering membrane cleaning and replacing

The seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination is an attractive and viable method for the production of fresh water in many areas. This paper addresses the optimal design of RO desalination system considering membrane cleaning and replacing during the 5-year maintenance period, and only a single stage configuration with pressure exchanger is analyzed. A mathematical model for the prediction of the performance of RO process is presented in detail. Simultaneously, this paper also addresses the new fouling model and the criterion of cleaning and replacing. Then the relevant economic models to the RO desalination process are developed, which relate the cost of investment and operation with the design variables, the structural variable, as well as the binary variable that determine the membrane regeneration. The optimum design problem can be formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem, which minimizes the total annualized cost. The mathematical programming problem is solved with GAMS software. As a result, the optimal operational parameters and the optimal cleaning and replacing scheduling are given. According to this model, one example is solved to illustrate the advantage and effectiveness of the suggested method.

[1]  Giorgio Migliorini,et al.  Seawater reverse osmosis plant using the pressure exchanger for energy recovery: a calculation model** , 2004 .

[2]  Mark Wilf Design consequences of recent improvements in membrane performance , 1997 .

[3]  Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi,et al.  Synthesis of reverse‐osmosis networks for waste reduction , 1992 .

[4]  Zacharias B. Maroulis,et al.  Optimization of reverse osmosis networks for seawater desalination , 1996 .

[5]  Zacharias B. Maroulis,et al.  Short-cut structural design of reverse osmosis desalination plants , 1997 .

[6]  Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi,et al.  Optimal design and scheduling of flexible reverse osmosis networks , 1997 .

[7]  Richard L. Stover Development of a Fourth Generation Energy Recovery Device , 2004 .

[8]  Eli Oklejas,et al.  Minimizing RO energy consumption under variable conditions of operation , 2003 .

[9]  V. S. Vassiliadis,et al.  Optimisation of membrane regeneration scheduling in reverse osmosis networks for seawater desalination , 1999 .

[10]  Mohammad Nurul Alam Hawlader,et al.  Design and economics of RO seawater desalination , 1996 .

[11]  Ibrahim Massaoud El-Azizi,et al.  Design criteria of 10,000 m3/d SWRO desalination plant of Tajura, Libya , 2003 .

[12]  Mohammed Badrulla Baig,et al.  Design features of a 20 migd SWRO desalination plant, Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia , 1998 .

[13]  M. Wilf,et al.  Optimization of seawater RO systems design , 2001 .

[14]  Richard L. Stover,et al.  Development of a fourth generation energy recovery device. A 'CTO's Notebook' , 2004 .

[15]  N. Vlachakis,et al.  Energy consumption and membrane replacement cost for seawater RO desalination plants , 2003 .