Desalination, Vol.368, 193-201, 2015
Pilot study of seawater nanofiltration softening technology based on integrated membrane system
A pilot-scale ultrafiltration (UF)-nanofiltration (NF) integrated membrane system (IMS) which included a self-cleaning crossflow UF filtration process and a dual-stage NF process with a capacity of 100 m(3).d(-1) NF permeation water was established for seawater softening investigation. The separation performance of the dual-stage NF process under different conditions, such as operating pressure, recovery rate, and inlet flowrate, was extensively investigated; long-term performance and energy consumption of the dual-stage NF process were analyzed as well. The results showed that during the long-term operation, UF could provide qualified filtrate for NF. The dual-stage NF process achieved high separation performance with good permeate quality, especially high rejection of Ca2+ and Mg2+ (>90%). In addition, the dual-stage NF process showed good anti-fouling characteristics, with the normalized NF permeate flux maintaining at an essential constant value of about 14 L.m(-2).h(-1) at 3.5 MPa, and DOC rejection around 90% during the long-term experiment. Energy consumption of the dual-stage NF process increased with the increase of the operating pressure and the decrease of the raw seawater temperature, which was about 1.8 kWh.m(-3) at 3.5 MPa and 25 degrees C. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Nanofiltration seawater softening;Integrated membrane system;Long-term operation;Permeate flux;Anti-fouling characteristics;Energy consumption