Reverse Osmosis Membranes Problems

What is the most common problem faced by RO membranes in different industry sectors (like membranes in beverage plants, desalination unit, as boiler feed etc...)?

Taxonomy

• Treatment
• Purification
• Energy
• Desalination
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Food Processing
• Dairy Products
• Non-Alcoholic Beverages
• Manufacturing Other

18 Answers

1. Try an internet search. 

   Membrane manufacturers have excellent downloadable RO manuals, etc, that will give you useful and detailed answers.  Design software, too.  Dupont's website is one good example.

   Good luck.

2. Bio-fouling Scaling, Poor Quality of pre-treatment , flactuation of raw quality and  uncontrol  TOC in raw water 

3. Biofouling, scaling, orp treatment, low recovery, disposal if ro reject etc are the problems associated with ro. 

4. Bonjour 

   Le principe fonctionnel de toute membrane est la retenue des MES par filtration.

   Tout dispositif de filtration est assujti au colmatage.

   Cela sous entend que plus il est en fonction, plus il colmate et perd ainsi de son efficacité.

    

   Hello

   The basic functional principle of any membrane is the retention of MES by filtration.

   Any filtering device is subject to clogging.

   This implies that the more it is in function, the more it clogs and thus loses its effectiveness whatever the qualifier that we can give it

     

5. Hello,Storing of Membranes for inventory purpose.And retrofitting of membranes to different companies also issue.

6. Hello,Biological fouling and hardness,Colliodal silica.The silica fouling at 1st stage RO,Bio fouling is all stages and hardnes is 2 nd stage.Good cleaning will support to prevent these problams.

7. Common RO membrane membranes problem are 

   a) Iron fouling

   b) Microbial/organic fouling (especially for recycle water) 

   c) Oxidation (loss of salt rejection)

   d) Scaling (can be overcome by using antiscalant)  

8. Talk with Elgin Separation Solutions http://www.elginseparationsolutions.com and ask about the Jacquelyn coating solution. Best wishes.

9. Most of this really breaks down to lack of good pretreatment design and/or monitoring.  We seem to get fixated on membrane performance and pay attention to filtration, softening, and chemical feed only when things are already off a bit. By then it is usually too late to recover  the membrane performance 100%.

10. Biofouling and pretreatment issues need to be tackled in ro systems. Ro rejere disposal mechanism need to be thought sbout befire putting the system. Ro can not replace sifsofte   

11. Another major problem is that several of the "receiving" systems are not designed to work well with soft water so not enough effort to properly treating the incoming flow. This causes really tough scaling that is hard to dislodge during back-flow flushing.

    Best solution is to "re-treat" cleaned effluent as needed to support the down-stream process. 

12. I would throw in knowing when to clean.  An RO's performance is influence by changes in pressures and temperatures (amongst other things already noted), and at times this influence can seem counter intuitive.  Without proper normalization software or spreadsheets, truly knowing when to clean can be impossible.

13. The most common problem behind chlorine damage of the membranes, is bio-fouling from allowing the membranes to sit idle too long (and/or not providing an auto-flush step with RO permeate at the end of the service run.)  The third common problem is running on hard water, and not providing effective anti-scalant/dispersant dose to the feed.  Another one behind that is poor engineering of the supply system coupled with attempting to produce more water than the design point by more than 20% above design (over-fluxes the lead membrane elements).

14. The two most prominent problems that I have observed, and which have been mentioned below, are biofouling, and poor pretreatment that allows excessive suspended solids to enter the membranes. 

15. The most common problem is the same problem regardless of industry or application. Not having a clear operating procedure and then not following the procedure faithfully and documenting the activity.  Not following a procedure is equal to not having a procedure.

16. Biofouling hands down.  Pre-treatment is an important factor too but once a system is up and running, biofouling is the primary issue.

17. The main problem of the membranes which I remind him not that a vocation which is that of filtration ensured by a principle of nano filtration is the clogging. The more active this process is, the less efficient it makes sense. How far, until when, should he stay in office holds the second problematic. The third stems from its financial cost of implementation. The three problems are corollary. 

18. -  Poor Pretreatment like Coagulation, chlorination and Dechlorination  will limit /damage performance of membranes may lead to microbio fouling 

    -  Underdosing/Overdosing of Antiscalant used will lead Membrane Scaling/Fouling.

    - No proper CIP program ( Cleaning in place)  in place will effect Membrane life and RO performance. This will lead to membrane fouling /scaling .

     

    2 Comments

    1. I couldn't agree more, Shashank!

    2. Can you say more about the "proper CIP program" mentioned here? What does cleaning in place look like for an RO membrane?

       1 Comment reply

       1. Clean in Place is the ordinary way we clean membranes without removing them from vessels.

          High pressure pump stops and low pressure pump performs a sequence of washings with acidic/alkaline/biocide solution discharging the used solution.

          A CIP program is based on foulants found in the feedwater and must be implemented along with the system design as a normal operative procedure: that's why (almost-) any RO unit is equipped with onboard CIP tank and chemical dosing pump (or separate skids) and HMI often features automatic cleaning phases based (usually) on working hours.