Experts from the company presented the latest results – allowing an even better description of the separation behavior of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes under realistic application conditions – at the 3rd International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria from April 2-5, 2017.
Understanding complex correlations The behavior of RO membranes is determined under realistic service conditions by a large number of parameters.
In practice, not only the common salt normally used in tests is dissolved in the feed, but other salts too.
The pH and the temperature of the salt solution have, for each salt or ion, an individual influence on the success of separation.
They are also noted for their high stability even in extreme pH and temperature ranges.
The separation behavior was examined both on isolated membranes and on complete reverse osmosis elements.
Response surfaces for many application scenarios The response surfaces derived from the test series describe the behavior of the membrane with regard to individual salts or ions over the entire pH and temperature range.
The results were completely different, for example, with boron, where, in addition to the pH dependence, there was also a marked dependence of rejection on temperature.
The results allow the parameters for RO elements to be specifically selected so that optimal separation results can be obtained for the respective application.
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