High silica concentration in RO concentrate and Magnesiumsilica polymers formation

High silica concentration in RO concentrate and Magnesiumsilica polymers formation

Haidari, A.H.

Heijman, S.G.J. (mentor)
Witkamp, G.J. (mentor)
Van Dijk, J.C. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Watermanagement

Sanitary Engineering

2011-03-17

Scaling is a major barrier in increasing recovery of RO installations. One of the major unresolved scaling problems in RO is silica scaling. Depending on pH and temperature, the safe operation practice to prevent silica scaling is to keep silica concentration below 150 [mg/l] in the concentrate. In this study, it was investigated whether it is possible to gain the high recovery and the very high silica concentration by removing divalent ions from the feed water by using ion exchange column. A total recovery of 90% is achieved without using antiscalant and with constant flux. The results show that in absence of antiscalant and divalent ions, silica concentration of about 280 [mg/l] in concentrate is possible without declining of mass transfer through the membrane.

reverse osmosis
silica scaling
phreeqC

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0a778af2-9af0-4e06-b7d8-f5a7b17f0ca8

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Haidari, A.H.