Achieving Excellence in High Purity Water Since 1985

TechNotes
PUREFLOW

The Official Journal of the PFI High Purity Water Conference & Seminar Series

Summer 2014

The Four Most Common Problems in

Membrane Water Treatment Today by David Paul,
David H. Paul, Inc.

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In this article, we will look at Inadequate Training of Personnel
the four most common problems The single biggest problem in the membrane water treatment industry is that too
currently affecting membrane water few people have been adequately trained in today’s high-tech water treatment
treatment units. A membrane water technologies. Most of us have gotten into high-tech water treatment by chance or
treatment unit refers to a spiral-wound luck, without any formal education or training.

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nanofiltration or reverse osmosis unit. Not everyone requires the same amount of training. There are three general levels of
The problems are listed starting with proficiency needed:
the biggest problem. The four most a) Knowledgeable b) Advanced, and c) Expert
common problems are:
As a minimum, every operator, maintenance person, engineer and direct supervisor should

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1 – Inadequate Training be knowledgeable about the water treatment system. Each should:
of Personnel • Have a basic knowledge of how each piece of equipment works and its desirable operating
2 – Inadequate Microbial Control parameters
• Understand the preventive procedures and preventive maintenance required to minimize
3 – Inadequate Monitoring
problems, and
4 – Inadequate Equipment Design

4
• Know what parameters to monitor in order to be able to tell when a problem is occurring
The problem is first defined, then Additionally, at the discretion of each facility, a few water treatment personnel should pos-
a list of recommendations in an a, b, sess more advanced knowledge and skills, having the ability to troubleshoot the most common
c, and d format is provided, followed upsets that may occur. The most common upsets include scaling, fouling, chemical attack, o-ring
by a more in-depth discussion of each leaks, mechanical failures and instrumentation failures. Advanced individuals can provide on-the-
recommendation. job support to less trained and experienced people.
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3
Inadequate Monitoring
Did You Know? Many systems don’t have sufficient instrumentation to
check all of the parameters that must be monitored in
Water that doesn’t have a residual of a biocide present, order to catch problems at an early stage, when they are
like chlorine, should be considered biologically active

4
most likely to be reversible. Even if the instrumentation is adequate,
and potentially hazardous to your health. For example, many facilities don’t trend the data… and/or no one looks at the data.
a common treatment scheme is for a plant to purchase While an excellent feed water, like certain ground water, combined
chlorinated or chloraminated municipal drinking water with an excellent membrane unit and pretreatment design, may provide
as its raw water. It’s common to dechlorinate the water a system that seems to “operate on its own”, this is frequently not the
before a treatment step like reverse osmosis that could case. It is important to monitor certain parameters. The most important
be damaged by chlorine. Any water downstream of parameters are:
the point of dechlorination should be considered a) Silt Density Index
potentially biologically hazardous. b) Normalized Permeate Flow
c) Pressure Drop Across each Stage, and
d) Percent Salt Rejection or Percent Salt Passage

Finally, two or three key people should be experts in the The Silt Density Index (SDI) is a measurement of the fouling

1
membrane water treatment field. These individuals must have potential of the feed water. The SDI procedure measures the amount of
received sufficient training to be able to troubleshoot complex fouling that occurs in and on a standard analytical membrane filter pad
chemical, biological, mechanical and instrumentation multi- after a given feed water is passed through the filter pad for fifteen min-
point failures; and additionally be able to train and support all utes. An SDI of less than 1 is exceptional; less than 3 is good; less than
other personnel. 4 or 5 is usually acceptable. If the SDI is greater than 5, the feed water

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is generally unacceptable for membrane water treatment. Additional
Inadequate Microbial Control pretreatment is required in order to reduce the SDI.
For many well water sources, an SDI measurement may only need
In order for bacteria to grow quickly enough and
to be taken monthly. For surface water, an SDI measurement should be
extensively enough to cause serious problems,
taken one to three times per day; more frequently during troubleshoot-
certain conditions must be met in the aqueous

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ing events. For surface water, the data should be entered daily and
environment. These include:
graphed at least weekly.
a) The presence of food
Normalized Permeate Flow (NPF) compares the membrane unit’s
b) A warm temperature
performance today, with the performance that WOULD BE expected if
c) A relatively low flow rate, and
the unit was new, as it was at startup. The NPF equation takes into ac-
d) The absence of harmful chemicals,
count changes in permeate flow rate, temperature, feed water salt con-

4
such as oxidizing agents
centration and various operating pressures. If the Normalized Permeate
Food for most microorganisms is organic carbon-contain- Flow decreases, this indicates scaling and/or fouling. If the Normalized
ing compounds. The concentration of dissolved organic com- Permeate Flow increases, this indicates membrane damage or bypass
pounds is measured as Total Organic Carbon or Total Oxidizable of the membrane. Normalized Permeate Flow data should be recorded
Carbon, and commonly abbreviated to TOC. A TOC level of only daily and graphed at least weekly.
1 mg/L may be sufficient to cause a lot of problems. TOC levels For membrane units, pressure drop is a measurement of the
of 5-10 mg/L or more are extremely favorable for biofouling. pressure into a stage of pressure vessels, minus the pressure out. The
The ideal temperature range for most water-borne bacteria pressure drop measurement correlates with the resistance to flow
is 30-40oC (86-105oF). In this temperature range the fastest through the stage. With scaling and/or fouling, there is less available
growth occurs. space through which water travels, therefore, there is more resistance to
Bacteria grow best when a constant supply of food is a given flow and the pressure drop increases. The pressure drop across
brought in at a relatively low flow rate. High flow rates minimize each stage should be recorded daily and graphed at least weekly.
growth due to shear force. Percent Salt Rejection (%SR) typically measures the percentage of
Chemicals that kill microorganisms are called biocides or feed water conductive substances that are rejected by the membrane.
microbicides. Oxidizing agents are frequently used as biocidal Percent Salt Passage (%SP) is the opposite of this; it measures the per-
agents. Chlorine is most commonly used. centage of feed water conductive substances that pass through the mem-
Except for cellulose acetate membranes, most of today’s brane. A conductivity meter on the feed water line and the permeate
nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes have limited line are required for real-time measurement of %SR or %SP. Salt rejection
tolerance to oxidizing agents such as chlorine. Therefore, decreases and salt passage increases with membrane damage and any
oxidizing agents are typically removed from the feed water just condition where the membrane is bypassed, such as an o-ring leak. Scal-
upstream of the membrane unit. This is accomplished either by ing also commonly causes the %SR to decrease (or %SP to increase). The
passing the feed water through an activated carbon bed or by %SR or %SP data should be recorded daily and graphed at least weekly.
the injection of a reducing agent, usually a sulfite-ion generat- Every week, a designated person, or persons, should review the Silt
ing compound such as sodium metabisulfite. Density Index, Normalized Permeate Flow, Pressure Drop, and Percent
Especially for a warm feed water originating from a surface Salt Rejection or Percent Salt Passage data. The human brain is excellent
water source, the removal of chlorine, or other biocidal agent, at quickly seeing whether the trends are stable or there is undesirable
commonly results in the conditions inside of the membrane performance degradation occurring. Some plants outsource the perfor-
unit being ideal for bacterial growth. The food, temperature, mance monitoring and evaluation which is also acceptable so long as
flow rate and absence of biocide can lead to serious biofouling. the evaluations are occurring weekly.
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Inadequate Equipment Design The need for monitoring Silt Density Index, Normalized Permeate
The industrial water treatment industry is boom- Flow, and Percent Salt Rejection or %Salt Passage has been discussed.
ing. There are many new OEMs (Original Equipment In order to monitor these parameters, the following instruments are
Manufacturers) entering the arena, many with little required as a minimum:
experience. The buyer must be aware. The design of the membrane • Feed water temperature • Permeate conductivity
unit and pretreatment equipment is critical for maximum life and • Feed water pressure • Concentrate flow rate
minimum problems. • Feed water conductivity • Concentrate pressure
The design should include the following components: • Permeate flow rate • Pressure between each stage
a) Conservative water flux rates • Permeate pressure
b) Relatively high cross-flow rates
c) Sufficient instrumentation for adequate monitoring, and Finally, as a minimum, a good cleaning skid must contain:
d) An adequate cleaning skid ✓ A cleaning tank that can hold roughly 2 - 2.5 times the volume
of water contained in the first stage pressure vessels.
Water Flux is the amount of permeate that passes through a
given amount of membrane in a given amount of time. Water flux ✓ An adequate mixing system for the cleaning tank so that all
is commonly identified as gfd, gallons of permeate produced, per chemicals are dissolved prior to initiation of chemical cleaning
square foot of membrane, per day. ✓ A heating element, temperature indicator and temperature
For a surface water with adequate pretreatment, 10-14 gfd controller on the cleaning tank so that the temperature of the
is a reasonable water flux rate. For an excellent well water with cleaning solution may be controlled
adequate pretreatment, 15-20 gfd is OK. For highly pretreated feed
water, such as microfiltered, ultrafiltered, or hyperfiltered water, a
✓ A cleaning pump that can deliver up to 40 gpm per pressure
vessel of cleaning solution to each stage being cleaned, at a
gfd of 20-30 is typically allowable.
pressure of less than 60 psi.
In order to lower bid cost, an OEM may specify fewer mem-
brane elements and pressure vessels than another OEM. This ✓ A cartridge filtration system to remove particulate material
means that the same amount of permeate is being produced by ✓ A flow indicator and flow control valve so that the cleaning
less square footage of membrane. This means that the gfd is higher. solution flow rate may be controlled
In general, the higher the gfd, the higher the fouling rate. While
the initial capital expense may be lower with a higher gfd unit, the
✓ Pressure indicators at the inlet and outlet of the stage being
cleaned so that pressure drop can be monitored and con-
overall annual operating and maintenance expenditures may be
trolled by varying the flow rate
higher. This added expense occurs every year thereafter.
To calculate gfd for a given unit, multiply the gallons per ✓ A sample point so that the pH and other parameters of the
minute of permeate produced by 1440 minutes per day. This is cleaning solution may be monitored
the total gallons per day of permeate produced. Next multiply the
square footage per membrane element times the total number of Conclusion
membrane elements. Standard 8” diameter membrane elements With the ever-expanding human population, the need for
contain 365 to 440 square feet of membrane. Standard 4” diameter high quality water will not diminish. Membrane water treatment is
membrane elements contain roughly 80 square feet of membrane. currently the best available technology for many industrial and mu-
You must find out, from the membrane element specification sheet, nicipal applications. The future is bright for trained water treatment
how many square feet of membrane your elements have. Finally, people who provide excellent service both to their employer and to
divide the gallons per day of permeate by the total square footage their clients.
of membrane to determine a unit’s gfd.
For example, let’s consider an RO unit that is easy for the brain
to understand, not a real RO unit. Let’s say that this RO unit has ten
8” diameter, 400 ft2 membrane elements and produces 50 gallons
per minute of permeate.
Fifty gallons per minute times 1440 minutes per day equals
72,000 gallons per day. Ten membrane elements times 400 square
feet of membrane each equals 4,000 square feet of membrane.
72,000 gallons per day divided by 4,000 square feet of membrane About
equals 18 gfd. If this unit was operating on surface water, even mu- The Author: David Paul
nicipal drinking water from a surface source, it is likely that fouling is
at an unacceptably high rate. Either more membrane elements need David Paul is president of David H. Paul, Inc., a
to be added, or less permeate needs to be produced to lower the gfd. high-tech water treatment training and con-
Crossflow rates refer to the feed water flow rate that passes sulting firm with extensive online, classroom
across the surface of the membrane. In general, the higher the and hands-on training programs. He is a regular
crossflow rate, the higher the shear force, and subsequently the speaker at Pureflow's annual Technical Training
lower the fouling rate. Symposium, in addition to hosting numer-
If the flow rate exiting each pressure vessel is greater than 25 ous training sessions each year. He has more
gpm per 8” pressure vessel, then the crossflow rate is exceptional than 36 years of experience in high-tech water
by industry standards. It is not uncommon for the concentrate flow treatment, including 25+ years in training and
rate to be less than 20 gpm per 8” pressure vessel. If higher fouling consulting at hundreds of plants. Paul hold a B.S. in Biology and an M.S.
in Microbiology, and he has published more than 160 technical articles
rates than acceptable are seen, this may be one of the contributing
and papers.
reasons.
 1241 Jay Lane
The Official Journal of the
Graham, NC 27253
PFI High Purity Water
Conference & Seminar Series

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