Piloting batch reverse osmosis with a flexible bladder for water recovery from scaling-prone brine
Name
TOW_flexible_bladder_BRO_npj-Clean-Water_2025.pdf
Size
6.26 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Tow, Emily W.
Wei, Quantum J.
Abraham, Audrey R.
Chua, Kei L.
Plumley, Michael J.
Lienhard, John H
Date Issued
April 15, 2025
Journal
npj Clean Water
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Tow, E.W., Wei, Q.J., Abraham, A.R. et al. Piloting batch reverse osmosis with a flexible bladder for water recovery from scaling-prone brine. npj Clean Water 8, 30 (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A pilot-scale batch reverse osmosis (RO) system with a flexible bladder was designed to recover additional water from RO concentrate. The sulfate-rich, ~6400-ppm concentrate was sourced from the Yuma Desalting Plant (Arizona, USA), which desalinates agricultural drainage water. The pilot produced 4.4 m3/day of permeate with 150 ppm total dissolved solids from the facility’s concentrate stream with a recovery ratio of 82.6%. Despite producing supersaturated brine, there was no performance deterioration due to scaling. Using a bladder for retentate pressurization limited average power to 633 W and the specific energy consumption to 3.3 kWh/m3. The pilot’s energy data informed a model of large-scale batch RO, which has the potential to desalinate the same water for less than 1 kWh/m3. Additionally, a model was developed to predict scaling likelihood in batch RO. This investigation demonstrates that batch RO is a viable technology for low-energy brine concentration beyond saturation limits.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-025-00462-6
