Lee Chulmin, Kang Yesol, Kim Dong-Ho, Kim In S
Global Desalination Research Center, School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005, Korea.
Membranes (Basel). 2021 Mar 28;11(4):240. doi: 10.3390/membranes11040240.
The wastewater-seawater (WW-SW) integrated reverse osmosis (RO) process has gained much attention in and out of academia due to its energy saving capability, economic benefits, and sustainability. The other advantage of this process is to reduce boron concentration in the RO permeate that can exclude the post-treatment process. However, there are multiple design constraints regarding boron removal that restrict process design in the WW-SW integrated system. In this study, uncertainties in design factors of the WW-SW integrated system in consideration of boron removal have been explored. In comprehensive consideration of the blending ratio of between WW and SW, regulatory water quality standard, specific energy consumption (SEC), specific water cost, and RO recovery rate, a range of 15,000~20,000 mg/L feed turned out to be the most appropriate. Furthermore, boron rejection tests with SWRO (seawater reverse osmosis) and BWRO (brackish water reverse osmosis) membranes under actual WW-SW integration found a critical reduction in boron rejection at less than 20 bar of operating pressure. These findings emphasize the importance of caution in the use of BWRO membranes in the WW-SW integrated RO system.
由于具有节能能力、经济效益和可持续性，废水-海水（WW-SW）集成反渗透（RO）工艺在学术界内外都备受关注。该工艺的另一个优点是降低RO渗透液中的硼浓度，从而无需后续处理工艺。然而，在硼去除方面存在多个设计限制，制约了WW-SW集成系统的工艺设计。在本研究中，探讨了考虑硼去除的WW-SW集成系统设计因素中的不确定性。综合考虑WW和SW的混合比例、监管水质标准、比能耗（SEC）、单位水成本和RO回收率，结果表明15000~20000mg/L的进水范围最为合适。此外，在实际的WW-SW集成条件下，使用海水反渗透（SWRO）和苦咸水反渗透（BWRO）膜进行的硼截留测试发现，在运行压力低于20巴时，硼截留率会显著降低。这些发现强调了在WW-SW集成RO系统中谨慎使用BWRO膜的重要性。
