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Technical Papers

Technical Papers


Treatment of Brine Through Chemistry: Lessons Learned

This addition to the Treatment of Reverse Osomsis Brine Through Chemistry follows up with the municipal agencies for the Chino Basin Desalter and City of Sterling to verify the successful operation of brine treatment through the use of operational data, pipeline level measurements, pipe deposition records, deep well flowrates and injection pump speed cycles…

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Case Study: Expert Process Support Extends Membrane Life And Reduces Membrane-Related Expenditures By 65%

King Lee partnered with a culinary solutions provider to help overcome the challenge of extensive membrane fouling. A well disinfection recommendation led to savings of greater than 65% annually on membrane-related expenditures…

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Case Study: UHP Piping System Sanitization

Mitsubishi Semiconductor of America Inc. conducted a study which determined that the Quarternary Ammonium compounds found in Microclean UHP was the most cost-effective sanitizer based on the overall utility…

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Treatment of Reverse Osmosis Brine Through Chemistry

Brine disposal is a unique and indispensable resource for reverse osmosis water treatment plants, allowing a facility to export high salinity waste from inland areas to the ocean, rivers, or groundwater recharge. This export is important for protecting water…

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Management of Brine Discharges to Coastal Waters Recommendations of a Science Advisory Panel

A panel of five experts in diverse fields related to brine disposal in the ocean was convened to advise the State Water Resources Control Board on best practices for brine disposal in support of the development…

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Tunneling Through Scaling Barriers with Tandem RO Process for Silica and Calcium Sulfate Super-saturation

Tandem RO process involves a brackish water RO, followed immediately with a high pressure RO. Attaining the overall 95-97% recoveries with brackish or wastewater are increasingly possible. Such a process is…

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Colloidal iron and manganese in water affecting RO operation

The finding of various forms of iron, and less commonly manganese, in numerous reverse osmosis (RO) membrane autopsies we have performed, have led us to call attention to the diverse forms of iron…

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Antiscalants for near complete recovery of water with tandem RO process

Near complete recovery of water from desalination of brackish and wastewater on land using a reverse osmosis (RO) system followed in tandem by a seawater RO system is highly desirable. Such a tandem…

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Practical POU Sanitization Method for Drinking Water Used in Developing Countries

The united Nations agencies estimate that 1.1 billion people, primarily in the developing world, drink unsafe water (1). Of that number, some 2.2 million people die each year from exposures to poor sanitation and…

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Design, Operation and Maintenance of Ideal RO Plant

Purification of water and wastewater in reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, though simple in concept, is very much a process with complicated chemistries requiring validated design and trained operations…

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Tandem Reverse Osmosis Process for Zero-Liquid Discharge

A major source of wastewater generated on land can benefit from, and often are in need of, processes for the complete recovery of water, having only solid by-products or waste for  disposal. This applies to municipal…

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Recovery Optimization of RO Concentrate from Desert Wells

El Paso, Texas, in the arid expanse of the US southwest expects soon to be the site of the world’s largest inland desalination plant [1]. For the initial design of a 15 mgd (2370 m3/h) RO plant, even at the highest…

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Foulants in reverse osmosis membranes

Periodic cleaning of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is generally accepted as a necessary routine maintenance operation in the running operation of water  purification plants. Common foulants found in RO membrane elements…

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Colloidal Fouling of RO Membranes

Major municipal wastewater reclamation plants in California, USA, Singapore, and many built or planned for other regions of the world use the high pathogen reduction properties of microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) membranes followed by reverse… 

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A Method to Automate Normalization and Trending for RO Plant Operators

Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) systems are incorporated into the overall treatment program for major municipal water utilities desalinating brackish, sea or wastewater. At the same time, many utility managers…

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Sustaining the Productivity of Reverse Osmosis Plants

Across the spectrum of industrial and municipal water utilization and treatment plants, extensive desalination and purification of water relies on the use of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Sustaining the productivity… 

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Chemical Control of Colloidal Fouling of Reverse Osmosis systems

Fouling of membranes by colloidal organic and inorganic particles continues to be documented as the most common and challenging obstacle in attaining stable continuous operation of reverse osmosis…

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Process Simplification through the use of Antiscalants and Antifoulants

The world’s increasing need for economically purified water and the advent of 50 to 100 million gallons per day (mgd) reverse osmosis (RO) plants capable of producing portable water at competitive prices…

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Discussion of silica speciation, fouling, control and maximu

The production of ultrapure water for the power and microelectronics industries, multiple pass reverse osmosis (RO) process commonly the major step in the reduction of dissolved and suspended matter before polishing…

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Chemical Keys to Optimal RO Processes

Process for the purification of water and waste-water incorporating reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are increasingly being used. The demand for stability and reliability of the processes has steadily increased as RO systems…

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Arsenic removal by reverse osmosis Article

Arsenic is widely distributed in nature in air, water and soil. Acute and chronic arsenic exposure via drinking water has been reported in many countries, especially Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Mongolia…

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Complete elimination of acid injection in reverse osmosis plants

Antiscalants with broad activity spectra are available today. When properly chosen, a single antiscalant can efficiently and simultaneously control calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, strontium sulfate, barium…

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Antiscalants that Permit Operation of RO Systems at High pH Levels

The production of high-purity water often begins with a reverse osmosis (RO) system for an initial purification of available water using membranes. The efficient rejection of weakly acidic contaminants in…

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Minimizing Liquid Water Discharge from Municipal Reverse Osmosis Plants

High recovery of water with RO membranes is by far the most efficient method of processing waste and brackish water. If emerging success in the intermediate precipitative treatment of the limiting…

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2000- Making a Ideal Process for Pure Water by RO

To treat brackish water of varying qualities, reverse osmosis (RO) systems are used in all sizes, ranging from plants with thousands of membrane elements to portable skids with perhaps three elements…

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1999- Reverse osmosis process chemistry relevant to the Gulf

The cost of seawater desalination by reverse osmosis technology (RO) continues to drop with time. This portends accelerating adoption of RO around the world in the 21st century. Since chemicals are used…

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1999- Operational Characteristics of RO Process Chemistry

The application of membranes in the purification of water provides a powerful means of producing high-purity water. In the total treatment of raw water, reverse osmosis (RO) is an important midstream process…

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1998- Observations from Analysis of RO Membrane Foulants

Periodic cleaning of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is generally accepted as a necessary routine maintenance operation in the running of the water purification plants. The need for more effective cleaning…

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1997- The Iron Silica and Organic Polymer Triangle

Reverse osmosis (RO)(1) is a process of using trains of semipermeable membrane elements for filtering water under pressure to remove solutes. It is a work horse for generating high-purity water needed for the production of steam and power.

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1996- Memstor- Reverse Osmosis (RO) Element Preservation Study

The Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) located at Port Hueneme, California has operated the Seawater Desalination Test Facility (SDTF) since 1983 to evaluate

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