• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제22권3호
• /
• pp.343-350
• /
• 2008

Many reports have warned of insufficient water supply in most countries in future and prospected providing safe and clean water become more difficult by lack of access to sustainable drinking water resources. Several facts and figures explained the impact by natural climate change and human activity results in the water scarcity and deterioration. Among many scientific solutions, the seawater desalination using a reverse osmosis membrane, so called SWRO (Seawater Reverse Osmosis) process, has been recognized as one of the most promising alternatives because of its stability and efficiency in producing large amount of drinking water from seawater through desalination by membrane filtration. Recently, in Korea, numerous researches are conducted to develop more productive and cost effective SWRO process for its wide implementation. The objective of this paper is to review the patents concerning SWRO technologies involving the plant engineering, maintenance including pretreatment of seawater and fouling control, module design, and mechanical units development for energy saving. The patents in Korea, U.S., Japan, Europe, and PCT were intensively researched and analyzed to provide the state of the art as well as leading edge technology on SWRO. This information can hopefully suggest meaningful guidelines on future research and development.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• 제5권1호
• /
• pp.15-29
• /
• 2014

Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination has gained wide and increasing acceptance around the world as a straightforward undertaking to alleviate the alarming water crisis. An enhanced monitoring of the quality of the water feeding in seawater RO (SWRO) plant through the application of an effective pretreatment option is one of the keys to the success of RO technology in desalination plants. Over the past 10 years, advances in ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technologies in application for water and wastewater treatment have prompted an impetus for using membrane pretreatment in seawater desalination plants. By integrating SWRO plant with UF pretreatment, the rate of membrane fouling can be significantly reduced and thus extend the life of RO membrane. With the growing importance and significant advances attained in UF pretreatment, this review presents an overview of UF pretreatment in SWRO plants. The advantages offered by UF as an alternative of pretreatment option are compared to the existing conventionally used technologies. The current progress made in the integration of SWRO with UF pretreatment is also highlighted. Finally, the recent advances pursued in UF technology is reviewed in order to provide an insight and hence path the way for the future development of this technology.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제25권4호
• /
• pp.573-579
• /
• 2011

As rapid advances in technologies continue, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination systems are now more energy-efficient than conventional thermal processes. Some SWRO desalination plants can achieve the specific energy consumption (SEC) below 2 kWh/$m^3$. Along with the development of new membranes and high-performance pumps, energy recovery devices (ERD), which recover the hydraulic energy of brine, have been developed to enhance energy efficiency. In this work, we reviewed general aspects of ERD technologies and their market trends. The advantages and disadvantages of various EDR technologies were compared to explore the future directions of ERD development.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• 제16권4호
• /
• pp.205-212
• /
• 2011

Reverse osmosis (RO) technology has developed over the past 40 years to control a 44% market share in the world desalting production capacity and an 80% share in the total number of desalination plants installed worldwide. The application of conventional and low-pressure membrane pretreatment processes to seawater RO (SWRO) desalination has undergone accelerated development over the past decade. Reliable pretreatment techniques are required for the successful operation of SWRO processes, since a major issue is membrane fouling associated with particulate matter/colloids, organic/inorganic compounds, and biological growth. While conventional pretreatment processes such as coagulation and granular media filtration have been widely used for SWRO, there has been an increased tendency toward the use of ultrafiltration/microfiltration (UF/MF) instead of conventional treatment techniques. The literature shows that both the conventional and the UF/MF membrane pretreatment processes have different advantages and disadvantages. This review suggests that, depending on the feed water quality conditions, the suitable integration of multiple pretreatment processes may be considered valid since this would utilize the benefits of each separate pretreatment.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제27권5호
• /
• pp.555-560
• /
• 2013

A cost analysis method for pretreament processes of a large scale seawater desalination plant was considered using a cost estimation model, WaTER (Water Treatment Estimation Routine). This model is based on cost functions of U.S. EPA to conduct economic analysis of water treatment facilities. A virtual seawater desalination plant which has pretreatment production capacity of $100,000m^3$ per day was chosen as a model plant. Dual media filtration and microfiltration systems were compared as pretreatment process, and the following reverse osmosis process was modeled. As a result, microfiltration showed a price competitiveness in condition of operating with reverse osmosis process by reducing the loads of water treatment and membrane cleaning despite it's high annual cost.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제30권5호
• /
• pp.521-532
• /
• 2016

Seawater desalination market after global economic crisis has been stalled due to the market uncertainties and decreased demand in desalination. It is important to review the status of the market and to estimate the appropriate share of Forward osmosis-Reverse Osmosis (FO-RO) hybrid desalination technology by figuring out the outlook of the desalination market. Main part of the desalination market will still be MENA (Middle East and North Africa) in the near future due to the fast population increase and high dependency of fossil fuel in the region. The market for FO-RO hybrid technology, however, might be smaller than the conventional SWRO desalination market anyway because of aesthetic issues from using wastewater as raw water and higher costs associated with capex. Therefore, it is essential to improve FO membrane performance and system operation technologies in order to make the hybrid technology attractive compared to the conventional SWRO technology.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제25권2호
• /
• pp.177-184
• /
• 2011

Membrane fouling is an unavoidable phenomenon in operation of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and major obstacle for economic and efficient operation. When fouling occurs on the membrane surface, the permeate flux is decreased, on the contrary, the trans-membrane pressure (TMP) is increased, therefore operation and maintaining costs and potential damage of membranes are able to the pivotal risks of the process. Chemical cleaning process is essential to prevent interruptions for effective RO membrane filtration process. This study focused on proper chemical cleaning condition for polyamide RO membranes of 4 companies. Several chemical agents were applied for chemical cleaning under numbers of operating conditions. Additionally, a monitoring tool of FEEM as autopsy analysis method is adapted for the prediction of organic bio-fouling.

• 한국시뮬레이션학회논문지
• /
• 제28권4호
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2019

해수담수화(SWRO, Sea Water Reverse Osmosis) 플랜트는 장기적이고 지속적인 담수 생산을 위하여 설계단계부터 플랜트의 가용도를 고려하여야 하며, 시간의 흐름에 따라 다양한 형태의 노후 현상이 진행되어 시스템 성능의 저하가 발생하므로 가용도 유지를 위한 고장정비 및 예방정비 계획 수립 등이 필요하다. 해수담수화 플랜트와 같이 복잡한 공학구조로 구성된 플랜트 분야에서는 시스템의 신뢰도 혹은 가용도를 수리적인 방법으로 추정하는데 어려움이 있다. 본 연구는 해수담수화 플랜트에 특화된 소프트웨어 개발을 위하여, RAM 분석 프레임워크와 모델링 방법을 개발하고, 가용도 산출을 위한 이산사건 시뮬레이션 모델을 제안한다. 플랜트 정비의 특성을 고려하여 고장 정비 발생 시, 단일 부품의 수리/교체 뿐만 아니라 분해 정비 수준에 따라 접근 가능한 모든 부품을 동시 정비하는 예방정비 정책을 제안하고, 제안된 방법론에 따라 시뮬레이션 모델 및 프로토타입을 개발하였다. 이를 활용하여 국내외에 건설된 해수담수화 플랜트의 현장 데이터를 기반으로 시스템의 가용도 및 가동률 등을 추정 사례 연구를 수행하였고, 그 결과 실제 플랜트의 가용도와 근접한 결과를 얻었다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• 제55권6호
• /
• pp.762-766
• /
• 2017

에너지 회수장치는 역삼투 공정에서 에너지 소모량을 줄이기 위해 사용된다. 그러나 해수담수화 시장에서 소규모 에너지 회수장치(<$100m^3/d$)를 찾기는 쉽지 않다. 우리나라에서 음용수 생산을 위한 역삼투 해수담수화 시설은 대부분 도서지역이나 선박에서 소규모로 운영되고 있다. 즉, 국내에는 소규모 에너지 회수장치 수요가 잠재하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 고압펌프의 현실적인 효율과 국내 전력비 단가 등을 고려하여, 소규모 역삼투 공정의 에너지 소모량을 에너지 회수장치의 적용 여부 및 설치 장소(예: 육상, 도서, 선박)에 따라 비교 분석하였다. 분석 결과, 에너지 회수장치 적용 시 전력비는 1,914.1원/$m^3$ 까지 절감될 수 있고 소규모 시설과 선박에서는 절감효과가 증가되는 것을 확인하였다. 소규모 역삼투 담수화 시설이 대부분을 차지하는 국내 현실과 규모가 작아질수록 에너지 회수장치에 대한 전력비 절감효과가 커지는 본 연구의 결과를 고려한다면, 소규모 에너지 회수장치의 개발 필요성이 크다고 할 수 있다.

• 대한토목학회논문집
• /
• 제42권3호
• /
• pp.351-357
• /
• 2022

본 연구에서는 하수재이용과 해수담수화를 동시에 진행할 수 있는 규모 1,000 m³/d의 FO-RO 융합공정과 동일한 규모의 기존 SWRO 공정의 탄소배출량을 계산하여 비교 분석하였다. FO-RO 융합공정은 FO 공정을 도입하여 RO 공정 원수를 희석시킬 수 있기 때문에 RO 공정의 요구 압력이 감소되고 이는 곧 에너지소비량 감소로 이어진다. 에너지소비량에 따른 탄소배출량은 FO-RO 융합공정이 SWRO 공정보다 -0.73 kgCO₂(coal로 전력생산 시) 낮으며, FO 공정 추가 건설로 인해 발생되는 탄소배출량은 +0.16 kgCO₂로 계산되어 FO-RO 융합공정의 총 탄소 배출량이 더 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 하지만, Coal나 oil과 같은 화석연료로 전력을 생산하지 않고, 전력생산 시 탄소배출량이 적은 nuclear나 solar 등으로 사용하면 FO-RO 융합공정의 총 탄소배출량이 SWRO 공정보다 더 높은 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 탄소배출량 관점에서는 전력생산 시 필요 재료(예: coal, oil, nuclear, solar 등)에 따라 친환경적인 공정 판단 여부가 결정되므로 FO-RO 융합공정 도입 필요성을 좌우하는 핵심 요소라고 할 수 있다.