The Potential of Membrane Contactors in the Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment Lines of a Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant

The flexibility of membrane contactors (MCs) is highlighted for a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant. MCs are applied as pre-treatment the oxygen removal and pH reduction seawater, also post-treatment increase RO permeate brine volume. A decrease seawater down to neutral values, needed when coagulation used in line RO, together with an up 7.58, matching target produced water, can be obtained without use chemicals. Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) Vacuum (VMD) investigated function feed concentration (ranging from 40 g/L 80 g/L) temperature (40 °C–80° C). Their performance compared at parity operating conditions terms driving force. Both distillation systems able efficiently reject salts (rejection > 99.99%), while higher distillate fluxes vacuum side (15 kg/m2h vs. 6.6 feed).