Time-Dependent Desalination Tests for Small-Scale SWRO Pilot Plant Installed at Urla Bay, Turkey

In this work, performance data from a small-scale reverse osmosis (RO) plant based on seawater FilmTec spiral wound RO membranes for different periods of operation are presented and analyzed. A prototype RO set-up with a 2,200 L/d capacity was installed and operated at Urla Bay which was located in Izmir, Turkey. This study typically investigates RO performance in terms of permeate flux, salt and boron rejections. Thin-flm composite membrane-based RO technology was successfully used with this RO set-up, which gave an average salt rejection of more than 95%. It was found that over a period of 36 hours of continuous operation, the permeate flux decreased by approximately 4% of its initial value but salt rejection stayed nearly constant. In this study, long-term data were also compared with a full-capacity operation using two paralleled membranes and a lowered-capacity operation with a single membrane. The results show that the small-scale RO system was successfully operated to mimic typical large-scale RO plants installed for production of potable water.