EN-57AB fouling/CP control in spiral wound module during reverse osmosis (RO) via angular vibration

Abstract

Increasing water scarcity will lead to a steady growth of membrane utilization in the water industry. Hence, it is of paramount importance to improve the membrane performance to provide cost-effective water solutions across the globe. This study investigated have the effects of angular vibration on RO membranes, which yielded positive results on the fouling control/CP of the membranes. The influences of feed concentration (SI), crossflow velocity and vibration frequency were investigated on the efficiency of vibration. In the case of SI, the results implied that vibration can mitigate RO membrane fouled by scaling only in the case of under a certain threshold of feed concentration (SI ≤ 1.8). It was also proved that increasing the crossflow velocity and vibration frequency would increase the effectiveness of vibration, due to mitigation of CP phenomenon and even reduction of cake layer. However, this effectiveness can be negated by an excessively high crossflow velocity and vibration frequency. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to identify the optimal ranges of operation conditions and parameters to moderate the decline in volumetric flux.