Reverse Osmosis Performance Parameters

Fluid purification system with multiple cells interconnected by a valving network, where each cell has a purification element like a membrane. The controller regenerates cells one by one in reverse flow while simultaneously purifying through the other cells in forward flow. This allows continuous purification without interruption by swapping regenerated cells into the series. The controller rearranges cells between regenerations to balance loading.

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Membrane-based water filtration system for producing drinking water from various sources while avoiding post-mineralization steps. The system uses multiple membrane units with different membrane types in parallel. Initially, units with nanofiltration membranes are run first to remove pollutants and partially soften the water. Then, as the calcium level increases, units with reverse osmosis or low-pressure reverse osmosis membranes are switched to the front to further soften the water. This allows producing drinking water without needing post-mineralization steps, while still reducing hardness and pollutants. The membrane units are sequenced based on calcium levels to maintain target hardness.

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Flow distributor for batch and semi-batch hyperfiltration systems like reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) to improve brine displacement during flushing cycles. The distributor is placed upstream of the empty space in the pressure vessel. It has a coefficient of variation for velocity profile downstream of less than 0.1. This provides even flow distribution across the cross-section perpendicular to the flow direction. It prevents stagnant areas and improves brine displacement during flushing, reducing salt concentration, mineral scaling, energy consumption, and allowing higher recovery.

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Optimizing reverse osmosis water desalination systems using machine learning to reduce operating costs and improve performance by predicting when to clean the membranes. The system measures parameters like feed pressure, flow, salinity, temperature, etc. and uses a trained ML model to determine fouling levels and optimize flow rates through the stages. This allows reducing energy use while maintaining permeate production. By predicting when fouling will inflect and decline, cleaning can be timed to minimize energy vs waiting for a 10% flux drop. The ML model also balances flow across stages for energy savings.

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Biocide compositions and methods for maintaining, cleaning, and defouling reverse osmosis membranes using a stabilized hypochlorous acid solution containing a bromide ion source. The stabilized hypochlorous acid solution forms small amounts of bromine in situ that effectively control biofouling without harming sensitive membranes. The biocide composition can be used as an online biocide to prevent fouling in reverse osmosis systems, as well as for offline cleaning of fouled membranes.

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Reverse osmosis system with optimized energy consumption for water treatment applications like desalination or wastewater reclamation. The system uses a chain of membrane units connected in sequence. Each membrane unit has an inlet, outlet, and concentrate outlet. The concentrate outlet of a unit feeds into the inlet of the next unit. The final unit's concentrate outlet connects to a hydraulic motor. This motor is connected to an electric generator. The generator can drive a pump upstream of a membrane unit to boost feed pressure. This recycles concentrate energy to drive the system. It eliminates wasteful high-pressure feed pumps. The motor can be variable frequency to adapt to changing conditions. Sensors on the axial piston machines monitor flow and pressure.

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Reverse osmosis filter system that improves efficiency and longevity compared to conventional RO filters. The system uses additional components like pre-filters, turbines, and end cap filters to more effectively remove impurities and prevent clogging. The components are arranged inside the filter housing in a specific order. This configuration allows larger impurities to be trapped and separated out before reaching the RO membrane, reducing membrane fouling. The turbine component generates fluid flow to help flush out impurities. The end cap filter catches any remaining particles before exiting the system.

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Membranes for water filtration like reverse osmosis or forward osmosis that have improved water flux without sacrificing solute rejection. The membranes are prepared by interfacial polymerization using a pore-forming agent like triflouropropyl trichloro silane (TFPTCS) in addition to the traditional polyfunctional amine and acyl halide monomers. The pore-forming agent helps to increase the water flux through the membrane. The membranes can also contain vesicles with aquaporin water channels incorporated into them, which further boosts water flux. The vesicles are immobilized in the membrane during the polymerization process.

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Off-grid desalination system that uses a tidal turbine to directly drive a centrifugal reverse osmosis (CRO) module without any electrical conversion. The CRO module separates salt water into fresh water by spinning it at increasing pressure levels due to centrifugal force. The tidal turbine provides the rotational power, and the CRO is mechanically connected to the turbine. This allows desalination without relying on grid electricity or energy storage. The CRO can also pressurize the feed water to a lower level using a pump driven by the turbine.

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Water treatment method and apparatus to prevent biofouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes without harming the membranes. The method involves intermittently adding biocides to the water feed to the RO membrane. The biocide dose and frequency are adjusted based on membrane fouling levels. This prevents excessive biocide concentrations that can harm the membrane. The biocide addition is tuned to keep oxidation potential below a threshold without exceeding it. This prevents biocide-induced membrane fouling while still providing adequate biocide dosing to prevent organic growth.

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Osmotic membrane separation system with feed and draw recirculation loops in each module to improve efficiency and prevent fouling. The system has a series of osmosis modules where feed and draw solutions are circulated co-currently through each module. Feed recirculation loops connect feed inlet to outlet of each module. Draw recirculation loops connect draw inlet to outlet. This allows controlled flow rates, solute concentrations, and hydrostatic pressures in each loop. The bulk feed and draw streams flow counter-currently through the system as a whole. The recirculation loops prevent boundary layer buildup and fouling. They also allow mixing of partially concentrated streams to reduce driving force and enhance membrane efficiency.

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Filter leaf for reverse osmosis filters with raised features on the membrane surface that enhance filtration performance and cleaning efficiency. The raised features are formed directly on the membrane using printing or embossing techniques. The feature configuration optimizes flow characteristics during normal filtration and reverse flushing. During filtration, the features induce higher velocities to resist fouling. During flushing, they induce higher velocities for scouring. This eliminates the need for cleaning chemicals and allows using reverse flow for cleaning.

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Monitoring a fluid and controlling a process in a membrane filtration plant to optimize cleaning and flushing procedures. The system uses sensors to measure characteristics of the feed, permeate, and retentate streams. By comparing these measurements, it determines if the cleaning has reached a target level. If so, it stops the flush to save fluid and avoid overcleaning. This prevents waste of expensive cleaning fluids while ensuring adequate cleaning. The system can also stop flushing if the time limit is reached. This prevents infinite flushing due to sensor errors.

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Intelligent monitoring and control system for reverse osmosis water treatment systems that improves accuracy, speed, and reliability compared to manual monitoring. The system uses sensors before and after each filter stage, as well as chlorine sensors and flow meters, to provide real-time data on water quality and flow rates. This data is analyzed by a controller to optimize dosing of chemicals, detect issues like filter blockage, and provide early warning of problems. The system also has a communication module to transmit data and alerts.

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Reverse osmosis membrane concentration rate control system for power plants that automatically adjusts the membrane concentration rate without manual intervention. It uses sensors to monitor parameters like water quality, flow, temperature, pressure, and concentration. A control module compares these values to predefined thresholds and triggers actions like opening/closing valves to optimize concentration, prevent fouling, and mitigate risks like organic pollution. This provides stable, efficient, and automated membrane concentration without manual sampling or control.

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Predicting membrane maintenance and replacement dates for water treatment systems using artificial intelligence. The method involves calculating standardized operating indicators for membranes based on normalized measurements. It learns regression models for each indicator using historical data. The normalized indicators are used to predict membrane aging and fouling. This allows generating alerts when membranes need cleaning or replacement without reconfiguring the models for different membrane types or architectures. The normalized indicators are calculated from measured variables like pressure, flow rate, salt passage, and temperature.

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Real-time monitoring of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane fouling to enable early detection, characterization, and mitigation of fouling. The technique involves isolating the permeate of a lead or tail element in each stage of an RO system and measuring its flux and rejection directly. This provides much higher sensitivity and faster detection of fouling compared to monitoring the entire stage or system. By isolating the lead or tail element permeate and measuring its performance, fouling can be detected several times faster. This allows for more targeted and effective fouling management strategies.

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Water treatment device with monitoring to prevent membrane fouling, oxidation, and damage in reverse osmosis systems. The device has multiple sensors before and after the filter to continuously monitor water quality indicators like temperature, conductivity, pH, flow rate, pressure. This allows real-time monitoring and early warning of issues like fouling, oxidation, damage. The device also has backwash capability for the filter to clean it. This comprehensive monitoring and cleaning approach prevents membrane issues that can impact system performance and longevity.

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Adjusting the pH of the water is treated with reverse osmosis membrane filtration to maintain optimum water quality. The method involves measuring the pH and water quality of the treated water, changing the inflow water pH by a certain amount, and comparing average water quality before and after the pH change. If the water quality deteriorates, the inflow pH is adjusted to improve it. This iterative process ensures the treated water quality is always within a predetermined range.

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A dynamic control system for reverse osmosis membrane fouling based on real-time monitoring of operating conditions. The system uses sensors on the inlet and outlet pipes of each membrane group to monitor parameters like pressure, conductivity, and flow rate. These signals are fed back to a control system to determine the best cleaning time for each membrane based on flux and transmembrane pressure differences. This allows targeted cleaning of fouled membranes instead of full system shutdowns.

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