AWWA ACE63245

The main objective of this project, which was conducted by MWH for the California Energy Commission, was to consolidate the existing knowledge on full-scale reverse osmosis/nanofiltration (RO/NF) desalination plants into a single source that can be readily used as a reference (i.e., for improving operations of existing plants or for planning of future installations). The project involved an extensive collection of detailed information from worldwide full-scale RO/NF desalination plants, using a web-based survey. A list of facilities to be included in the survey was developed by contacting RO and NF manufacturers, local government offices, universities and professional organizations related to the field. The RO and NF facilities included in the survey met the following criteria: utilize seawater, brackish water, reclaimed wastewater, or agricultural drainage as feedwater; have capacities of at least 1.0 mgd (approximately 4 ML/day or 4,000 m³/day); started operation in 1990; and, were willing to participate. The next step was developing a detailed survey questionnaire, focused on three major sections including, design, operational and cost data. At a minimum, the survey data included the following: contact information, geographic location, plant capacity, capital cost data, current operating cost data, source water type and characteristics, raw and feed water quality, pretreatment data, RO/NF operating data (pressures, flux, temperature, feedwater recovery, chemical use), product water quality, concentrate water quality and concentrate disposal issues, membrane information (manufacturer, model, cost), and chemical cleaning procedure and frequency. A substantial effort was made to ensure that the survey questionnaire developed was sufficiently comprehensive to meet the needs of all types of plants (seawater or brackish water desalination, wastewater reuse, etc.). A website was created to implement the survey questionnaire and to facilitate distribution and completion of the survey for plant owners and operators. The website served two functions. First, it provided a means for distributing project-related information to team members and participant facilities. As such, it included a page with project team contact information, a project schedule page and a page where project documents could be downloaded. Project team members were provided access to this portion of the website through a pre-assigned username and password. A sample of the online survey is presented in the paper. Second, the plant owner and operator survey instrument was implemented on the website as a set of user-friendly forms using hypertext markup language (HTML) for each questionnaire section. Includes 14 references, tables, figures.