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Jul 12, 2013 / in Blog Articles

According to Desalination Volume 320, 1 July 2013, Pages 49–55, researchers at Sichuan University in China have designed a new system for chemical cleaning and repair of used reverse osmosis membranes (CCR-ROM), which system uses fewer chemical reagents and produces less waste water. The results indicate that the average salt rejection of the cleaned membranes was increased from 67.5% to 90.6%, while the average water recovery of the cleaned membranes was reduced from 18.8% to 14.6%, and the average differential  pressure was reduced from 0.30 MPa to 0.15 MPa. In this new method, a single RO membrane consumes only 22.5 L of cleaning solution or just over a third of that used in traditional online chemical cleaning. The treated RO membranes were subsequently tested in an industrial-line water production system for three months, with positive results. Compared with traditional online chemical cleaning, the CCR-ROM method can prolong the period of water production and the life of the RO membranes by a factor of about four. There are obvious advantages of the new system including the ability to reutilise the discarded RO membranes, as well as the savings costs of the cleaning solutions. Filcon Filters is a manufacturer and distributer of filtration equipment…we do supply RO membranes. We’ll keep you up-to-date on developments within the filtration industry.