Reactive micromixing eliminates fouling and concentration polarization in reverse osmosis membranes

Concentration Polarization in Reverse Osmosis Membranes: Effect of Membrane Splitting

We propose a simulation study in order to evaluate the effects of concentration polarization damping by splitting a single spiral-wound membrane module in two units connected in series inside the same shell. The reverse osmosis process in each unit is described by the advection-diffusion equation in two dimensions which is solved by a finite difference technique. Several feed regimes and operat...

Coupled Effects of Salt Concentration Polarization and Colloidal Deposition on the Performance of Reverse Osmosis Membranes

The shrinking water supply together with our continuously increasing demand for this resource has stimulated a renewed interest in reverse osmosis (RO) as a water treatment unit process. A wider use of RO membranes, however, is impeded by a group of phenomena that lead to permeate flux decline, deterioration of permeate water quality, shortening of membrane life, and thus to a substantial incre...

Fouling Prediction in Reverse Osmosis Processes

In recent years, membrane separation processes have successfully established footholds in all areas of chemical separations. Semipermeable membranes are now enhancing and even replacing long-time standard techniques such as distillation and solvent extraction (1). They are also being used in the preparation of purified chemical and biological products as well as the treatment and recovery of ma...

Effects of membrane fouling and scaling on boron rejection by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes

Polymer surface nano-structuring of reverse osmosis membranes for fouling resistance and improved flux performance†

A new class of surface-structured RO membranes was developed with a hydrophilic brush layer of terminally anchored polymer chains resulting in fouling resistant membranes of low mineral scaling propensity and high permeability. The approach is based on free-radical graft polymerization of a suitable monomer, onto the active polyamide (PA) layer of a thin film composite (PA-TFC) membrane, post-s...