AWWA MTC64571

The Englewood Water District (EWD) located in Englewood, Florida operates a brackish water reverse osmosis (RO) desalting facility with nearly 25 years of operating history and treatment technology "firsts" and process advances. Numerous studies, improvements, and expansions over the years have improved RO performance and reduced energy consumption. Some of the advances that are discussed in this paper include: development of site-specific, membrane-specific flux criteria; innovative bacterial fouling study and fouling control remedial measure; energy recovery and membrane stage flux-balancing methods; use of three generations of spiral wound RO membrane elements; and, innovative RO train design features to maximize performance and minimize costs with increasing feed water salinity from an initial 4,700 mg/L TDS to current values seen in some wells of approximately 8,000 mg/L. This paper summarizes the history of the EWD RO plant and describes the process advances, some of which have had an impact not only on the Englewood facility, but on the membrane industry in general. Includes 5 references, tables, figure.