Full Description
The main objective of this project, which was conducted by MWH for the California Energy Commission, was to consolidate the existing knowledge on full-scale reverse osmosis/nanofiltration (RO/NF) desalination plants into a single source that can be readily used as a reference (i.e., for improving operations of existing plants or for planning of future installations). The project involved an extensive collection of detailed information from worldwide full-scaleRO/NF desalination plants, using a web-based survey. A list of facilities to be included in thesurvey was developed by contacting RO and NF manufacturers, local government offices,universities and professional organizations related to the field. The RO and NF facilities includedin the survey met the following criteria:utilize seawater, brackish water, reclaimed wastewater, or agricultural drainage as feedwater;have capacities of at least 1.0 mgd (approximately 4 ML/day or 4,000 msup3/sup/day);started operation in 1990; and,were willing to participate.The next step was developing a detailed survey questionnaire, focusedon three major sections including, design, operational and cost data. At a minimum, the surveydata included the following: contact information, geographic location, plant capacity, capital costdata, current operating cost data, source water type and characteristics, raw and feed waterquality, pretreatment data, RO/NF operating data (pressures, flux, temperature, feedwaterrecovery, chemical use), product water quality, concentrate water quality and concentratedisposal issues, membrane information (manufacturer, model, cost), and chemical cleaning procedureand frequency. A substantial effort was made to ensure that the survey questionnaire developedwas sufficiently comprehensive to meet the needs of all types of plants (seawater or brackishwater desalination, wastewater reuse, etc.). A website was created to implement the survey questionnaire and to facilitate distribution andcompletion of the survey for plant owners and operators. The website served two functions.First, it provided a means for distributing project-related information to team members andparticipant facilities. As such, it included a page with project team contact information, a projectschedule page and a page where project documents could be downloaded. Project team memberswere provided access to this portion of the website through a pre-assigned username andpassword. A sample of the online survey is presented in the paper. Second, the plant owner and operator survey instrument was implemented on the website as a setof user-friendly forms using hypertext markup language (HTML) for each questionnaire section. Includes 14 references, tables, figures.
