STANDARDIZATION OF RO MEMBRANE PERFORMANCE

The quality and quantity of reverse osmosis (RO) permeate may vary, de pending on the applied pressure, temperature, conversion factor and th e feed concentration. Actual performances are not steady under various conditions, and thus operating data are generated variably. An effect ive evaluation of the performance of the RO system is to compare perme ate flow rate and salt rejection data under standard conditions. At th e Doha desalination plant (DRP) in Kuwait, an on-line standardization software program, based on the ASTM I method, has been developed to ev aluate the performance data of the two RO lines - spiral wound and hol low fine fiber. This paper investigates the performance of the two RO lines using the program developed and comparing the results with the d esign data as a reference. For this purpose operating data, generated over two years by DRP, were utilized.