Does the feed-water to a Reverse Osmosis Plant require pre-treatment?
Pre-treatment of the water is often required to ensure that the feed stream will not scale or foul the membranes. Calculations are undertaken by Derwent Water Services’ specialists to assess the scaling potential of the water with special regard to calcium sulphate, calcium carbonate and silica scaling. Treatment can then be advised to make the water non-scaling. This can be acid dosing, anti-scalent inhibitor or, more frequently now, base/exchange softening of the feed-water stream prior to the reverse osmosis unit. With suspended solids present in the feed-water stream, then filtration or ultra-filtration may be required.