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UNSW Canberra at ADFA - School of Engineering and Information Technology

Module 5: SWRO Plant Engineering Design

Ahmed Swidan

Why Ro Plants for Water desalination

• Since 1980, the specific energy consumption (SEC) of SWRO has dropped from 10
kWh/m3 to 3.0–5.0 kWh/m3 and product water cost from $2.00/m3 to about $0.75–
1.25/m3.

• The energy and cost figures for brackish water RO (BWRO) at 70–75% recovery today
are 0.5–1.0 kWh/m3 and $0.15–0.75/m3, respectively.

• The theoretical minimum energy of desalination for seawater at 35,000 mg/l (ppm) salt
and at a typical recovery of 50% is 1.06 kWh/m3.

• The actual energy consumption, however, is higher; for example, recovering 50% of a
35 g/l feed will have a practical minimum energy of 1.56 kWh/m3. Further, more than 1
kWh/m3 energy is required for pretreatment, post-treatment and pumping of feed
water, product water and brine reject.

Why Ro Plants for Water desalination

• Realistically, therefore, a minimum of 2.6 kWh/m3 is consumed in a SWRO plant.
Current state-of-the-art SWRO plants consume 3–5 kWh/m3 of energy.

• The likelihood of reducing overall water cost and energy consumption of SWRO plants
to <2.2 kWh/m3 is unlikely due to several limiting factors such as membrane type and
material, low product water recovery (PWR) (40–45%), concentration polarisation,
fouling, membrane element hydrodynamics and RO system design.

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Physical Characteristics of Water

• Turbidity – low turbidity indicates high water clearness (NTU)

• Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) – Total combined solids in water (mg/L)

• Silt Density Index (SOl) - fouling potential to the feed water in a RO process

• Total Organic Carbon (TOC) - Provides a quantity on the purity of the water

Membrane System Performance Correlations

• Membrane Flux (Jw)

is proportional to the difference between the applied hydraulic pressure and the osmotic
pressure. It is also proportional to the membrane’S permeability, applied pressure and
temperature.

J =A(ΔP –Δπ)
w

where J is membrane water flux, A is membrane permeability 
w

coefficient, ΔP is hydraulic differential pressure across the 
membrane, and Δπ is osmotic pressure differential across the 
membrane.

Membrane System Performance Correlations

• The viability of a membrane process for potable water production depends on the
energy consumption. The power input reflects the pressure energy required to pump
water molecules through a size/charge selective membrane and is expressed as SEC
in kWh/m3 of product water.

• The following relationships are used to calculate energy consumption:

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Membrane System Performance Correlations

• The performance of RO membrane process is typically determined by two key
parameters, recovery and rejection, defined as follows:

• where F and F are product and feed flow rates, respectively and 

p f 

C and C are feed and product water salt concentration, 
f p 

respectively. 

Membrane System Performance Correlations

• The product water (permeate) flow rate increases 3% per °C rise in water 
temperature because of lower viscosity (lower energy requirement) based on the 
general relationship between flux and temperature:

where Js is the flux at standard temperature, Ts (e.g. 25 °C) and Jm is the flux at process
temperature, Tm.

Membrane System Performance Correlations

• The net driving pressure, NDP, across a RO/NF membrane is estimated from:

where NDP is the net driving pressure, bar; Pfeed is feed pressure; Pbrine is reject
pressure; Pperm is permeate pressure; πavg conc. is average osmotic pressure on the
feed side; πavg perm is osmotic pressure of the permeate.

• The osmotic pressure, π, of a saline solution is calculated from:

where T is temperature, K; Σmi is summation of molarity of all ionic and non-ionic

dissolved solids, and R is a constant = 0.0821 l bar/K mol. For solutions with total dissolved
solids (TDS) less than 5000 mg/l, π = (0.01) X (TDS).

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Membrane System Performance Correlations

The amount of product water (permeate) is generally dependent on:

.
(i) total area of membrane ( 𝐴 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠

(ii) membrane pressure supplied by the high-pressure pump(s),

(iii) reject flow rate, and

(iv) feed water quality.

Design Guidelines for a RO Plant

Note that most of the guidelines were obtained from the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry. In 2006 the department published a document named: "A
Desalination Guide for South African Municipal Engineers". The following steps
are guidelines to design a reverse osmosis plant. The steps are:

 Step 1: Determine the product volume requirement.

 Step 2: Determine the characteristics of the feed water.
 Step 3: Calculate the number of membranes required
 Step 4: Calculate the feed pressure requirement
 Step 5: Calculate pre-treatment supply requirements
 Step 6: Estimate the energy requirements of the RO plant
 Step 7: Consider discharge of brine water
 Step 8: Estimate the capital cost of the RO plant
 Step 9: Economic evaluation of the RO plant

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Step 1: Determine the product volume requirement

First of all, a good evaluation should be carried out to determine the customer's
water requirements. Plant downtime should also be taken into account and
Equation 3 gives the actual plant production rate.

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Step 2: Determine the characteristics of the feed water

The quality of the feed water gives an estimation of the maximum recovery ratio
(RR) a RO plant can achieve. Membrane fouling is the limiting factor for the
recovery ratio due to scaling. At the critical recovery ratio crystal formation in the
brine stream would appear due to the saturation point of the salt. RO plants should
never be operated above this critical recovery ratio.

The following gives some guidance to the recovery ratio of seawater and ground
water.

• Seawater- 30 % < RR < 50 %

• Groundwater - 60 % < RR < 90 %

.
e.g. PR 1 as the calcium carbonate is one of the general salts found in
water.

However PR is also function of: all Calcium salts, Silicates, Oxides and hydroxides
of iron, manganese and aluminium, and Salts with barium and strontium

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Step 3: Calculate the Number of Membranes Required

• In this step the designer must identify a RO supplier from whom to obtain
information regarding the performance of the membranes. In this module we
are going to use the thin film membrane – Filmtech Membranes due to its
popularity and high efficiency.

. .
𝐴 𝑧

Z - Number of passes (Z 0 if one passes and Z = 1 if 2 passes, etc.)

• To calculate the number of membrane elements required, the applicable

membrane area has to be known.

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠

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Step 4: Calculate the Feed Pressure Requirement

• Overpressure can damage membranes permanently and therefore the general

feed pressure is limited at approximately 80 bar. For further protection some
manufacturers decrease this limit to 70 bar.

• Note that a higher feed water temperature will decrease the feed pressure
requirement. On the other hand a higher flux rate and recovery ratio will increase
the feed pressure.

. .
𝑃 5 . 1.034
. .

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Step 5: Calculate Pre-treatment Supply Requirements

A pre-treatment system requires additional water for maintenance purposes

such as backwash, CIP, etc. Therefore the feed pumps must supply an
additional volume of water for the pre-treatment system and not only for the
RO membranes.

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Step 6: Estimate the Energy Requirements of the RO Plant

In Step 5 it was mentioned that seawater RO membranes require pressures up to

70 bars. High pressure pumps are used to achieve this high feed pressure.
However, this results in high energy demands for the RO process.

In case of utilising an energy recovery system, e.g. PX or Water Turbocharger,

etc. The total power required will be as follows:

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Step 6: Additional systems energy requirements

Apart from the desalination energy the RO plant needs basic electricity for auxiliary
systems, lighting, etc. By using a slight over-estimated pressure for the pre- and
post-treatment (Ppre/post), depending on the design.

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Step 7: Consider Discharge of Brine Water

• In this step the designer must understand that discharge of high saline brine
water to the environment.
• There are mainly two options for the discharging method, namely to use an
evaporation pond or to discharge the brine back into the feed water source
(e.g. the sea).

• Evaporation ponds can only be used in small RO applications, but will have an
extra cost.
• In the case where the brine water is returned to the feed water source (Le. the
sea), currents, marine life, inflow of large rivers, etc. must be considered
during the design. On the microscopic level measurements such as the
colloidal, organic and biological amounts are important and must be monitored
by specialists.

• Another option is to extract components from the brine water. In Eliat a salt
company has produced 30 % more salt from using 20 % brine water from a
desalination plant with 80 % seawater. One advantage is that the salt
production cost is decreased. (Ravizky & Nadav, 2007:374)

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Step 8: Estimate the Capital Cost of the RO Plant

• The desalination cost is classified as the cost of mechanical, civil and

electrical systems together with the RO membrane systems.
• Thus, the cost is function of:
• The plant - Skid
• Intake, discharge, and post treatment installation cost
• Contract costs
• Consider the economic evaluation of the RO Plant
• Specific cost of energy
• Specific cost of membrane replacements
• Cost of chemical and consumables
• Cost of labour and maintenance

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END

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