THE APPLICATION OF A NOVEL CHEMICAL TREATMENT PROGRAM TO MITIGATE SCALING AND FOULING IN REVERSE-OSMOSIS UNITS

The desire for improved chemical treatment programs to mitigate scaling and fouling in reverse osmosis units brought Saudi Aramco and Betz International together. The challenge to produce a chemical treatment program that was simpler, safer, and more economical than the traditional sodium hexametaphosphate and sulphuric acid treatment was identified as a mutual goal. This paper presents the results of intensive field trials conducted to evaluate commercially available chemical formulations. The objective of any successful antiscalant is to address the operation's needs as well as prevent any deterioration in product water quality or in the reverse osmosis unit production capacity. The results were based on monitoring the product water conductivity and monitoring the reverse osmosis unit production. Over the test period of the successful chemical, it was recorded that there was no deterioration in product quality nor in unit production. The data were regressed and normalized to account for the fluctuations in operating conditions of the unit. An autopsy of the second stage membrane was conducted by Saudi Aramco. The membrane was found to be in excellent condition with no significant scaling or fouling. © 1991.