(419ae) Energy Consumption Optimization of Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis Membrane Desalination, Based on Operating Factors

Desalination is a key to provide water for various sectors in today’s world water crisis. There are different types of desalination methods, including thermal and membrane desalination technologies. Both methods are energy intensive, they consume thermal energy and electricity, respectively. In inland region due to low salinity of water it is common to use membrane desalination technologies. Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis desalination (BWRO) system is technically applicable worldwide, but has technical challenges such as disposal and management of the concentrate as well as economic barriers due to the final cost of treated water.

Energy cost can be a significant portion of the total cost of treated water and the high pressure pumps utilized in the treatment of the BWRO consume a major portion of the total energy used during the processing. In order to address the affordability of BWRO, energy optimization is required. While some work has continued in energy minimization, our investigation is considering a number of effective parameters such as pressure, temperature, different feed concentrations as well as their interactions on the optimized performance of the system.