Treatment of coastal well water using ultrafiltration-nanofiltration-reverse osmosis to produce isotonic solutions and drinking water: Fouling behavior and energy efficiency

Abstract In the current paper, a suggested process of coupled ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO) to produce isotonic solution (IS) and drinking water from coastal well water was investigated. Due to its high fouling potential, the feed water was pretreated using UF. Results showed that UF eliminates almost the totality of natural organic matter (NOM), and a relatively high portion of calcium (calcium rejection ∼75%) due to the complex Ca-NOM formed. To understand the fouling mechanism, previously developed mathematical models and equations were adopted. It was shown that the fouling mechanism for UF fits the blocking pores model. For NF, the extended model using cross-flow mode showed a slight difference compared to UF (No compression cake phase). It was concluded that, with some experimental precautions, fouling mechanism of the NF membrane used is internal pore blocking mechanism. Due to its attractive quality, the brine of NF was used to produce drinking water by RO treatment. The energy consumption of the UF-NF-RO system was investigated for different operating conditions. Finally, the permeate of the UF-NF process was compared to a commercialized IS. It was found that the two solutions revealed a remarkable similarity. However, a specific post-treatment should be added to the process to accomplish the pharmaceutical exigencies of IS.