Membrane System Design

Florencia Saravia

ENGLER_BUNTE_INSTITUTE, CHAIR OF WATER CHEMISTRY AND WATER TECHNOLOGY

KIT University of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and

National Research Center of the Helmholtz Association www.kit.edu
 Steps for membrane design

1. Consider feed source, feed quality, feed/product flow, and required

product quality
2. Select membrane rejection/membrane module
3. Select the flow configuration and number of passes
4. Select membrane element type
5. Select average membrane flux
6. Calculate the number of elements needed
7. Calculate number of pressure vessels needed
8. Select number of stages / Select the staging ratio
9. Balance the permeate flow rate
10.Analyze and optimize the membrane system

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 Step1: Water quality / Feed water souce
(Groundwater/surface water/waste water)

Groundwater, India

Neckar, GER
Jordan river, JOR

Pre-treatment depends mainly on water source

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 Step 1: Water quality

Wellwater: very simple pretreatment scheme, such as acidification

and/or antiscalant dosing and a 5-m cartridge filter. Fe and Mn and
gases (e.g. H2S) represent the main problem

Surface water: variable feed water source affected by seasonal

factors. High fouling potential!!. Pretreatment: chlorination,
coagulation/flocculation, clarification, multimedia filtration,
dechlorination, acidification and/or antiscalant dosing.

Industrial and municipal wastewaters: wide variety of organic and

inorganic constituents. Pre-treatment depends on water constituents.

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 Step 1: Water quality

Advanced filtration technology, such as microfiltration,

ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration, can also be used as pretreatment
in RO systems.
MF can remove suspended solids and bacteria, UF can filter viruses,
and NF can remove organic matter, some dissolved solids and divalent
ions (scaling!).
They can provide better feed water quality than other conventional
pretreatment steps; however, the cost of this equipment is still high
in comparison to traditional treatments.

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 Step 1: Water quality

Pretreatment optimization plays a key role in keeping the

membrane clean and efficient, which may reduce the
frequency of membrane cleaning and extend the life of the
membrane elements.

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 Step 1: Water quality

Important parameters

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 Step 1: Water quality

Use of permeate
Groundwater
recharge

Industrial use
Drinking water

Irrigation

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 Step 2: Membrane rejection/membrane module

Depending on step 1 the membrane material and module

should be defined.

Obtaining the requested salt rejection is mainly a matter of

membrane selection.
NF membrane are typically applied to feed waters up to 2,000 mg/L
total dissolved solids (TDS),
LPRO up to 10,000 mg/L, and
RO (Seewater desalination) to high salinity feed waters up to 50,000
mg/L

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 Step 2: Membrane rejection/membrane module

Membrane material

Consider following characteristics:

Membrane fouling rates
Water flux specification
System pressure requirements
Membrane response to cleaning operations and tolerance of cleaning
procedures
Tolerance of pH
Temperature range
Chemical abrasion resistance
Membrane suppliers provide detailed technical
specifications of their membrane elements.
Reverse Osmosis Optimization. Accessed at http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/10/f3/ro_optimization.pdf, December 2015

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 Step 3: Flow configuration and nr. of passes

Plug Flow vs. Concentrate Recirculation

Plug flow system: the feed

volume is passed once
through the system.

Concentrate recirculation: a
fraction of the concentrate
stream out of the module (or
stage) is directed back to the
feed side of the module (or
stage) and mixed with the feed
stream.
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 Step3: Flow configuration and nr. of passes

Number of passes: first pass vs. second pass configuration

First pass Second pass

And what about the recovery of ROI and ROII?

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 Step 4: Select element

Elements are selected according to:

feed water salinity,

feed water fouling tendency,
required rejection
energy requirements
experimental data
price!!

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 Step 5: Membrane flux
Membrane flux (L/hm2)

pilot data
typical design fluxes according to feed
suggestion of membrane company!!!

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 Step 6: Nr. of elements

Calculate the number of elements needed

Divide the design permeate flow rate QP by the design flux f and
by the membrane surface area of the selected element SE to
obtain the number of elements NE.

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 Step 7: Number of pressure vessels

Calculate number of pressure vessels nedeed

Standard: 6-element vessels ,

but vessels with up to 8 elements are available.

For smaller and/or compact systems, shorter vessels may be selected.

NE=number of elements
NEpV= number of element per pressure vessel
NV = number of vessels

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 Step 8: Select number of stages

The number of stages defines how many pressure vessels in series

the feed will pass through until it exits the system and is
discharged as concentrate.
Every stage consists of a certain number of pressure vessels in
parallel.

The number of stages depends on:

the planned system recovery,
the number of elements per vessel, and
the feed water quality.

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 Step 8: Select number of stages

The recovery of membrane systems is limited by the solubility of

sparingly soluble salts
For brackish water applications 90% is about the maximum.
In seawater desalination, the limit of about 50% recovery is dictated by the
osmotic pressure of the concentrate stream,

One-stage systems can also be designed for high recoveries if concentrate

recycling is used.

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 Step 8: Staging ratio

The relation of the number of pressure vessels in subsequent

stages is called the staging ratio R.

Typical staging ratio (six elements)

Brackish water 2:1
See water 3:2

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 Step 9: Balance the permeate flow rate

Balance the permeate flow rate

Differences in the permeate flow rate in the elements (e.g. low

permeate flow in the last element)

Balance of the flow rate of elements in the different positions

can be achieved by the following means:
Boosting the feed pressure between stages: preferred for
efficient energy use
Apply a permeate backpressure only to the first stage of a two-
stage system: low system cost alternative
Hybrid system: use membranes with lower water permeability
in the first positions and membranes with higher water
permeabilities in the last positions

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 Step 10: Optimization the membrane system

Analyze and optimize the membrane system

Application of specific membrane software!!!

e.g.
TORAY DS
ROSA
IMSDesign (Hydranautics)

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 System realiability

Ensurement of system reliability:

1) oversizing the membrane units at the design flux

(filtration at reduced fluxes less fouling);

2) providing a redundant membrane unit (one unit out of

service or one unit in stand by)

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 References

1. Design guideline for Toray Elements, 2004.

2. Dow Liquid Separations, FILMTEC Reverse Osmosis Membranes,
Technical Manual, 2005.
3. Melin und Rautenbach, 2007.
4. Membrane Filtration Guidance Manual, EPA, 2005.
5. FILMTEC membranes. A Comparison of Cellulose Acetate and FILMTEC
FT30 Membranes. Accessed at
http://msdssearch.dow.com/PublishedLiteratureDOWCOM/dh_0062/
0901b80380062296.pdf?filepath=liquidseps/pdfs/noreg/609-
00232.pdf&fromPage=GetDoc. October 2012.
6. Reverse Osmosis Optimization, accessed at
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/10/f3/ro_optimization.pdf.
December 2015.

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 Practical work

19.01.16

from 9:45 to 11:15 Uhr

in

Pool G(-119), SSC, building 20.21

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