The effect of very high hydraulic pressure on the permeability and salt rejection of reverse osmosis membranes

A stirred-cell reverse osmosis setup was used to demonstrate that a seawater reverse osmosis membrane can maintain excellent rejection at pressures as high as 172 bar. However, it was also demonstrated that there was a significant drop in permeability at high pressures - likely due to membrane compaction. A simple visco-elastic model was shown to be able to model the overall shape of the permeability curve in time. However, this model does not match the data well when pressure is removed and then reapplied. From the perspective of membrane performance, RO is feasible at high pressures but distinct challenges are presented by reduced permeability and increased variability in flux.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• McConnon, Dillon James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lallit Anand.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98777

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98777