Qualifying New Chemistries For Reverse Osmosis Membrane Treatment

摘要

The use of reverse osmosis for water purification is increasing. Reverse osmosis offers an economically viable approach for the removal of dissolved solids from water. One aspect of membrane use is the need to treat the incoming water to prevent scale, microbiological growth and fouling from inhibiting the membrane's ability to function. In extreme conditions, these conditions can ruin a membrane, forcing expensive replacement. Treatment is itself of no value if the treatment chemicals are antagonistic to the membrane. It is of no benefit to feed a microbicide to a reverse osmosis system if the microbicide itself causes damage to the membrane. Testing products for compatibility with reverse osmosis membranes on a full sized system can be expensive and risky. Even testing on a pilot scale can consume large quantities of water and chemical. This paper describes a laboratory-scale test procedure for rapidly screening products for reverse osmosis membrane compatibility.