Pretreatment in Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination:
A Short Review |
Ramesh Valavala1, Jinsik Sohn2†, Jihee Han2, Namguk Her3, and Yeomin Yoon1 |
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA 2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kookmin University, Seoul 136-702, Korea 3Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Korea Army Academy at Young-Cheon, Young-cheon 770-849, Korea |
Corresponding Author:
Jinsik Sohn ,Tel: +82-2-910-4528, Fax: +82-2-910-8597, Email: jinsiksohn@kookmin.ac.kr |
Received: December 30, 2010; Accepted: November 23, 2011. |
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ABSTRACT |
Reverse osmosis (RO) technology has developed over the past 40 years to control a 44% market share in the world desalting production
capacity and an 80% share in the total number of desalination plants installed worldwide. The application of conventional and
low-pressure membrane pretreatment processes to seawater RO (SWRO) desalination has undergone accelerated development over the
past decade. Reliable pretreatment techniques are required for the successful operation of SWRO processes, since a major issue is membrane
fouling associated with particulate matter/colloids, organic/inorganic compounds, and biological growth. While conventional
pretreatment processes such as coagulation and granular media filtration have been widely used for SWRO, there has been an increased
tendency toward the use of ultrafiltration/microfiltration (UF/MF) instead of conventional treatment techniques. The literature shows
that both the conventional and the UF/MF membrane pretreatment processes have different advantages and disadvantages. This review
suggests that, depending on the feed water quality conditions, the suitable integration of multiple pretreatment processes may be
considered valid since this would utilize the benefits of each separate pretreatment. |
Keywords:
Coagulation | Desalination | Low-pressure membrane | Pretreatment | Reverse osmosis |
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