AWWA MTC57552

Over the past 12 months, a new membrane integrity monitoring system has been designed for integration into a full-scale membrane system. The system, commonly known as the Medusa Integrity Monitoring System, has a dual analysis approach using a combination of laser turbidity and statistical signal processing to determine the integrity status of a membrane system. On pilot scale membrane systems, this monitoring system has demonstrated the ability to detect an integrity loss as low as one broken fiber in a module containing more than 10,000 fibers with membrane feedwater turbidity less than 1 NTU1. Since this initial testing, the development of a full-scale Medusa integrity system has been completed and a system has been installed on a full-scale membrane rack located in Westminster, Colorado. The drinking water plant is a new membrane facility and was in the final stages of construction at the time of the Medusa installation. Since both the water treatment plant and the membrane integrity monitoring system were new, this presented an opportunity to use the Medusa system to monitor the membrane filtrate stream for indication of integrity loss and unexpected changes during process adjustments as the facility was brought online. The objective of this paper was to cover the transition from pilot monitoring to fullscale integration and application of the Medusa integrity monitoring system. One key objective was to confirm the integrity of each membrane module as the water treatment plant was brought on-line. After the startup, the Medusa sensors would be used to monitor the membrane filtrate as changes in the treatment train upstream of the membranes are performed. The application of this new membrane integrity monitoring system was the first full-scale effort to address shortcomings that have become significant issues with other integrity monitoring techniques. These issues included the need for high sensitivity and continuous on-line monitoring for integrity loss, and the ability to quickly and easily identify the compromised module. The multi-plexing approach utilized by the Medusa monitoring system provided a methodology to address these issues in an economical manner. The partnership between the instrument design team and the new membrane water treatment facility was designed to expose the strengths and weaknesses of the integrity monitoring system. The goal of this testing was to prove that the Medusa system will provide greater confidence now that the membrane system has been producing high quality water continuously over time. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.