SPIRAL WOUND MODULES PERFORMANCE - AN ANALYTICAL SOLUTION .1.

In this work an analytical solution for the performance of the spiral wound modules is presented, when distilled water is used as feed. This analysis takes into account pressure losses in both permeate and brine channels. In Part I an analytical procedure to determine the parameters: k(fb) (brine friction parameter), k(fp) (permeate friction parameter), and k1 (membrane water permeability coefficient), is presented. All three parameters will be found experimentally by using some explicit equations. The analysis for the distilled water could be used for very dilute feed solutions as well, since at these conditions the Osmotic Pressure and the concentration polarization could be ignored. The results fork k1 are in very good agreement with the general equations for R.O. membranes. For the friction parameters general equations have been suggested as a function of the Reynolds number. In Part II an analysis for seawater as feed will be presented.