Performance Enhancement of Reverse Osmosis (RO) Membrane Using Nanocomposite Materials

Abstract

Many attempts were made to enhance the performance of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in the desalination process. Using ion exchange (IX) bed before RO process and modifying the structure of RO membranes are some of these attempts. Thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane is the novel type of RO membranes which is the best in nanofiltration applications. TFN membranes have many new advantages due to the change of their structure in comparison with traditional membranes. In this study the performance of a TFN membrane was compared with that of standard thin film composite (TFC) spiral wound water desalination RO membrane for filtration of IX produced water. The results from the filtration process showed that the flux and water permeability of TFN are 1.55 and 1.56 times that of TFC for feed water with 2050 ppm NaCl concentration with nearly unchanged level of the membrane salt rejection, which will reduce the filtrated water cost.

Keywords

• tfn membrane
• ro membrane
• flux
• performance enhancement
• membrane permeability
• nanocomposite materials
• ion exchange