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Abstract
This work deals with the optimization, in reverse osmosis desalination plants, of the scheduling of membrane cleanings and rotation of the membrane modules inside each pressure vessel. Each pressure vessel consists of several membrane modules (typically around seven) in series. The modules closer to the feed inlet are prone to be damaged by biofouling and solids, while the modules closer to the reject outlet are prone to be damaged by scaling due to increased salt concentration. Besides, the permeate flux varies for different modules along the pressure vessel. In order to increase the life of the membrane modules, it is a good practice to rotate the modules, thus spreading the difference effects in each module. The topic of this work is to suggest a way to calculate the number and time instants for the rotations, and the optimal operation scheduling. This depends on several factors, such as the time instant for cleanings, the percentage of replacements, the quality of the feed water, etc. Due to the structure of the problem, the calculation is proposed to be done using genetic algorithms or Monte Carlo optimization.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially funded by MiCInn project DPI2010-21589-c05. The first author would like to thank ABB India for the support provided during his stay in the Engineering Department. Specially, he would like to thank Srinivas and Senthilmurugan for their help, kind welcome, consulting, and feedback.
Notes
Presented at the International Conference on Desalination for the Environment, Clean Water and Energy, European Desalination Society, 23–26 April 2012, Barcelona, Spain