Replacing membranes with different brands instead of each other

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What factors should be considered when replacing reverse osmosis membranes with different brands?

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6 Answers

  1. One major factor you have to consider is the membrane material with respect to your pretreatment process. If your RO membrane can tolerate chlorine and you have a chlorination unit in your pretreatment train then you must replace with another chlorine tolerant RO membrane

  2. To check other membranes, you should use it in first or/and last of the pressure vessel, as they have most impact of fouling, scaling etc. in this way you can find maybe a better membrane type for you specific water

  3. In most cases you can easily find membrane replacements (as equivalents) from one membrane manufacturer to another. Mixing the membranes is not the best way because it is difficult to project performance using the tools (e.g ROSA/Wave for Dow Filmtec membranes etc). It is also interesting to check depending on the system capacity whether you can have per stage or vessel only one manufacturer so that you can project and monitor their performance easier.  

  4. There may be specialised membranes, which competitor products may not be like for like, but other than that there will be a direct equivalent from another manufacturer.  If the membranes are designed for hot usage, they cannot be replaced with conventional membranes.  So you have to make sure that there are no special requirements.

  5. If the facility is regulated - for example a water reuse facility, then the regulator may require re-validation and verification of the performance of the membranes. You could look here for some work that was done in Australia to develop protocols for validation. https://www.waterra.com.au/research/waterval/

     

  6. Design pressure, flux and square feet of membrane.  

    Most membrane manufacturers will have direct replacements for competitors membrane.  It will simply be a matter of installing one instead of the other.  Give them the manufacturer and model of the membrane you are using and they can supply a like membrane.  

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