Evaluation of the five years operating data of a RO brackish water desalination plant in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain: A historic case

Abstract

The reverse osmosis (RO) brackish water desalination plant described in this article has been operating without acid in the pretreatment and only using two types of antiscalants (this was the first experience of 40,000 operating hours in Canaries). This work describes the graphical evolution of all the daily operating information of the first five years. A study of the normalization and standardization of the information about the five years of the evolution of the plant for fixed feedwater conditions, operating pressure, and system recovery is shown too, so that the performance evaluation of the plant can be indicated correctly. Likewise, this article describes the graphic evolution of thse brine Langelier saturation index (real and theoric values). The conclusions of this study and the operating experience are intended to get a practical and optimum design method of RO brackish water desalination plants.