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The City of Vero Beach, Florida has successfully operated their 2-MGD ReverseOsmosis (RO) facility for the past 11 years with the originally installed membraneelements. In recent years, membrane performance has decreased and feed pressures haveincreased significantly. Although the membrane elements were chemically cleaned andthe cleaning provided an effective short-term solution to the performance problems, themembranes returned to their pre-cleaning condition in less than three months. Basedupon the rapid decline in the membrane performance and age of the membranes, the Cityelected to replace the membrane elements. Three manufacturers of 8-1/2 inch thin filmcomposite membranes were tested side by side on the identical feed water quality. Thedesign of the membrane skid allows for a full-scale demonstration of seven 8-1/2 inchmembrane elements to be loaded into full-length pressure vessels. The full-scale testevaluated the physical operating parameters and chemical analysis of the feedwater,permeate, and concentrate. This paper focuses on the performance of the threemembranes in the full-scale tests. Comparisons between permeate quality for all threedifferent membrane manufacturer elements is shown. Capital cost projectionsbased on the feed pressures required will be the major criteria in the final selection criteria.The importance of conducting a full-scale membrane test for several months is amain theme of the paper. Analysis of the changes in performance of the membranes is performed.Another main theme of the paper is selecting a membrane based upon provenperformance and not only computer-simulated projections. There was disparity betweencomputer projections and actual performance data. Slight differences in surface area andfeed pressures yielded significant performance differences. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 03/05/2003 Number of Pages: 12 File Size: 1 file , 710 KB