Desalination technologies of brackish water have become a great concern. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are the leading technology for desalination because of their strong separation capabilities and a great potential for treatment of waters worldwide. Performance evaluation of RO for brackish water desalination was studied under Four feed pressures (20, 25, 30 and 35 bar), Five levels of water salinity (1200, 5000, 10000, 15000 and 20000 ppm) and number of RO membranes (two and three stages). RO system evaluation was carried out in terms of water quantity and quality according to World Health Organization guidelines.
The major results could be summarized as follow: -
Increasing feed pressure, increased salt rejection and permeate flux, while the permeate salinity and specific energy was decreased.
Increasing feed water salinity, decreased the permeate flux, while the salt rejection was increased up to 5000 and then decreased.
Using three RO membranes were sufficient to give the required quality water specification and lower specific energy consumption.
For household and agricultural uses: Operate RO desalination system under 20 bar pressure for 1200, 5000 and 10000 ppm water salinity, while use 25 bar for 15000 ppm and 30 bar for 20000 ppm salinity.
For industrial uses (Hatching): Operate RO desalination system under 35 bar pressure for 1200 ppm water salinity to obtain the desired limits of water quality for disinfection (5 – 10 ppm).