Reverse Osmosis in

Wastewater
Applications

Sayantanee Datta
CTS-utilities
Background

Desalination (Desal) units Five

Cumulative capacity 2600 cum/hr

It was envisaged that even after the fifth Desal unit, the
Growing Demand of process and horticulture will not be
met.
The purpose of the RO project was to increase the
availability of Good quality water which can be used for
horticulture purpose or/and make up to cooling towers.
 Water Integration in RIL, Jamnagar
Sea Water
Sea Water

Desalination
Desalination Brine
Brine
CT-
CT-
66 Domestic
Domestic

Process
Process
STP
STP
CT-
CT- CT-
CT- CT-
CT- CT-
CT-
Crude 77 11 22 88
Crude
Desalter
Desalter LTDS-ETP
LTDS-ETP Horticultur
Horticultur
ee
HTDS-ETP
HTDS-ETP HTDS
HTDS CT-
CT- CT-
CT-
33 55

HTDS LTDS Fire

Fire CT-
CT- Permeate
HTDS LTDS RO
RO Permeate
Fire
Fire water
water 44
water
water Reject to sea
 Objective:

To reclaim the maximum available treated HTDS water from

ETP, after meeting the demand for the make-up to CT-4.

Following aspects were considered:

Source of HTDS only to meet RO feed quality with single
treatment.
CT-4 to operate on a COC of 6 considering the improvement
actions in HTDS.
To reclaim blow down from CT-4.
 Total Sour water

Phenolic-1 Phenolic-2 Non Phe -1 Non Phe -2

HTDS NH3 LTDS NH3

Stripper Stripper

Desalter Spt. Caustic

OWS HTDS LTDS

RO Sea
CT-4
Excess

Horti Excess CT-3 CT-5 Coker

Basis of RO capacity:

Based on the calculation availability worked out as:

Total HTDS TW cum/hr 290
Make-up to CT-4 cum/hr 195
Blowdown from CT-4 cum/hr 40
Available HTDS after cum/hr 95
CT-4 make-up
Available feed for RO cum/hr 135

Hence, RO capacity is selected for a feed of 135 cum/hr comprising of:

1. 95 cum/hr of treated HTDS &
2. 40 cum/hr of CT-4 blowdown
Options for TDS removal

Four major conventional methods for TDS removal. They are:

Thermal Desalination.
Ion Exchange.
Electro Dialysis.
Reverse Osmosis.
 Parameters IE RO EDI
Chemical Very high Medium Not
Consumption Possible
Power low medium Very Very
High
Operating Cost 50-70 13-25 55-65
Rs/cum
Capital Cost high Medium Very
High
Plant Size Very big Medium Medium
Membrane/resin 3-4 yrs 3-4 yrs 2 yrs
life
Recovery 90-92% 65-90% 85%+
Tolerance to Very low Good Very low
Comparison:

Based on the comparison, following inferences were

drawn:

IE is recommended for water up to a TDS of 600

ppm. Hence unsuitable.
ED recommended for water only up to TDS of 20
ppm.

To meet the horticulture water requirement, we had

two
options:
A new Desal Plant using sea-water as feed.
A new RO plant using treated effluent form ETP.
 What is Desalination?

Reduce / Removal of
Salinity or hard scale forming
salts

to make sweet water for

domestic purpose
To avoid fouling & corrosion
of boiler & heat exchanger
tube surfaces for industrial
use

Feed water :
Sea TDS > 5,000 ppm
Brackish TDS 500 - 5,000
ppm
Sweet TDS < 500 ppm
Desal Suitability:

Desal suitable for TDS>20000 ppm where LP steam is

available at excess.
TDS of HTDS water is ~2000 ppm and Post VMP no
excess LP steam will be available at site.

So Desal was found unsuitable.

Cost of RO water was found to be 60% less as compared

to the Desal water.
 What is Osmosis?

Diffusion of a solvent through a

selectively permeable membrane from
a section of high water concentration to
a section of low water concentration.
The force per unit area required to
prevent the passage of water
through a selectively-permeable
membrane and into a solution of
greater concentration is
equivalent to the Osmotic
pressure.
What is Reverse Osmosis?

The osmosis process can be

driven in reverse with
solvent moving from a
region of high solute
concentration to a region of
low solute concentration by
applying a pressure in
excess of the osmotic
pressure.
This reverse osmosis
technique is commonly
applied to purify water.
HERO High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis

Why HERO???

At RIL, treated effluent rich in BOD, COD, O&G etc, the RO membrane system
will lead to frequent fouling due to biological compounds.
In presence of these impurities, a conventional RO will lead to frequent fouling,
reduction in overall production time and reduction in membrane life.
Considering the same, M/S Aquatech offered their patented technology called
HERO High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis.

HERO

totally eliminates possibility of biological growth.

resistant to fouling.
no related problems of frequent cleaning and downtime in HERO system.
 RO flow scheme:

Coagulant aid
Lime Coagulant aid
FeCl3

HTDS TW Clarifier water

Clarifier DMF
sump

CT-4 BD
Sodium bisulfite
Sludge for
disposal
Sulfuric
acid

Softener
HRU
Degasser storage
tank

Degasser
Caustic
High pre.
pump
Permeate tank
Cartridge filter RO stage -1

RO stage -2
Permeate
RO Inter stage distribution
pump pumps
Brine for Permeate Water
disposal
 RO flow scheme:

Coagulant aid Lime Coagulant aid

FeCl3
Clarifier
HTDS TW Clarifie water sump DMF
r
CT-4 BD
Sodium
Sludge for
bisulfite
disposal

Clarification and Filtration:

Solids that are currently getting carried over are reduced in
this unit. Necessary coagulant and coagulant aid dosing
systems are provided to ensure the efficiency of this system.
The treated water from the clarifier system shall be filtered for
removal of residual suspended matter. The media in these
filters shall consist of anthracite & sand.
 RO flow scheme:

Sulfuric
acid
Degasser

Softener
storage tank HRU

Degasser
Causti
c

HERO Pretreatment :

Softener [strong acid cation]:

This is a standard zeolite softener unit used to remove bulk of the
hardness causing ions in treated effluents to broad leakage levels of 50
- 100 mg/l.

Hardness Removal Unit [weak acid cation]:

This is also an ion-exchanger unit used to remove hardness causing
ions in treated effluents to a very fine leakage levels of < 1.0 ppm.

The pretreater is followed by degasser tower for removing the residual

alkalinity and stored in a degassed water storage tank
 RO flow scheme:
High pre.
pump
Cartridge filter RO stage -1 Permeate
tank

RO stage -2
Permeate
RO Inter distribution
stage pump pumps
Brine for Permeate
disposal Water
Micron Filter:
Preconditioned water passes through cartridge filters, which is a
safeguard against media breakthrough in the preceding units.

HERO Block :
The cartridge filters is followed by the HERO equipment. The high
recoveries are achieved in a 2 stage HERO block and hence recovered
in a permeate tank.

The final reject stream is suitably disposed with other high TDS wastes.
 Regeneration, Dosing & Clean up
Systems for HERO Pretreater :

Sodium meta-bi-sulphite dechlorination of feed water

Periodic pH correction facilities non-scaling treatment

RO cleaning system preventive maintenance

Softener regeneration Brine

HRU regeneration acid [98% H2SO4]

alkali [45% NaOH]
 HERO over conventional RO

Salient advantages of HERO vis--vis conventional RO system is as

follows:

1. Specialized pretreatment eliminates scaling tendencies of the feed water.

2. High recovery up to 90% leading to maximum recycle and minimum waste.
3. High tolerance to variance in feed water composition.
4. Consistent output on a long term basis.
5. Based on the above the cleaning frequency is drastically reduced.
6. Longer membrane life of about 5 year.
7. Easier to operate.
8. Smaller footprint of RO module block due to high flux rate through
membranes.
Insight to RO blocks

Recovery across HERO Block : 90 %

Overall Guaranteed Recovery : 81.5 %

No of stages : 2
No of tubes : 12
Membrane constituent :
Aromatic
Polyamide
Size : 0.002 microns
1st Stage -
Pressure rating : 400 psi
Service fluid : Degassed
water

2nd Stage -
Pressure rating : 1000
Comparison of Desal, RO and LTDS water

Parameters UOM Desal RO LTDS

pH 5.0-7.5 <9 6.0-7.5

Conductivity Us/cm 10 60-90 <800
TDS ppm <5 100-150 500
TSS ppm nd <1 20
Turbidity NTU nd <1 8
BOD ppm nd nd <10
M Alkalinity ppm nd <5 nd
Ca hardness ppm nd 0 nd
Iron ppm nd <0.5 nd
Contd

Parameter UOM Desal RO LTDS

Nitrate ppm Nd 15 nd
Sulphate ppm nd 10 80

Chloride ppm nd 10** 80

Ammonia ppm nd 10 8
Mg
Hardness ppm nd 0 nd
TOC ppm nd - -
COD ppm nd <10 <50
O&G ppm nd <5 <5
** At present remineralisation is NOT being done.
Thanks