Feed spacer geometries and permeability coefficients. Effect on the performance in BWRO spriral-wound membrane modules

Abstract

Reverse osmosis (RO) is the most widely used technology to desalinate brackish water and seawater. Significant efforts have been made in recent decades to improve RO efficiency. Feed spacer geometry design is a very important factor in RO membrane performance. In this work, correlations based on computational fluid dynamics and experimental work were applied in an algorithm to simulate the effect of different feed spacer geometries in full-scale brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) membranes with different permeability coefficients. The aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of feed spacers in conjunction with the permeability coefficients on membrane performance. The results showed a greater impact of feed spacer geometries in the membrane with the highest water permeability coefficient (A). Studying only one single element in a series, variations due to feed spacer geometries were observed in specific energy consumption ( SEC ) and permeate concentration ( Cp ) of about 6.83% and 10.42%, respectively. Allowing the rolling of commercial membranes with different feed spacer geometries depending on the operating conditions could optimize the RO process.