VSEP Treatment of RO Reject from Brackish Well Water A Comparison of Conventional Treatment Methods and VSEP, a Vibrating Membrane Filtration System.

Conventional spiral wound membrane systems using reverse osmosis or nano-filtration membranes are increasingly being used to treat well water from underground sources to supplement local drinking water supplies. Many of the remaining underground water sources are "Brackish" water sources where the dissolved solids can be 5,000 mg/L or even higher. One of the difficult engineering aspects of conventional spiral membrane technology is the treatment of the residual concentrated brine left over from the process. New Logic Research, Emeryville California, has developed and manufactures a new proprietary vibrating membrane filtration system that is not limited by solubility of sparingly soluble salts and is capable of extremely high recoveries of treated water from brine. The use of a vibrating membrane mechanism to avoid membrane colloidal fouling is new and is just the kind of improvement needed to increase the yield of filtered water from brackish well water. The Vibratory Shear Enhanced Process, (VSEP), technology has been installed in other areas for treatment of surface water to make ultrapure water for manufacturing and has also been used in manufacturing plants to treat the wastewater reject from other membrane systems to assist in ZeroDischarge. Recent pilot trials have been conducted using the VSEP technology to examine its use in brackish well water filtration and to volume reduce reject from other spiral membrane systems. This approach would extend the use of the VSEP technology to the municipal drinking water market in addition to the chemical processing and manufacturing markets where the technology has been used for many years. This article will discuss the recent VSEP pilot trial results and then make comparisons between using VSEP and other methods of brine reject disposal currently being employed or considered.