Desalination, 66 (1987) 423-430 423

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in.The Netherlands

OPTIMIZATION OF CHEMICAL PRETREATMENT FOR REVERSE OSMOSIS (RO) SEAWATER

DESALINATION

II. AL-RQOBAHl , M. ABDEL-JAWADl, Z. QAMHIYAH' and G. ALY*

1
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 24885, Safat 13109, Kuwait
L
Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, Kuwait

ABSTRACT
A total of 40 different experiments to optimize the SD1 in the filtered sea-
water have been conducted and evaluated. Different coagulant-acid concentra-
tions have been dosed in the feed seawater before passing the sand filters.
Different concentrations of ferrichloro-sulphate (0.4 - 1.5 ppm) and sulphuric
acid (15 - 30 ppm) were investigated and the SD1 values were measured.
Results indicate that SD1 values of about 2.0 can be achieved with very low
coagulant concentration. This would have great impact on decreasing the con-
sumption of the pretreatment chemicals and on increasing the membrane perfor-
mance.

INTRODUCTION
The State of Kuwait, represented by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research
(KISR) and the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), and the Federal
Republic of Germany, represented by GKSS Research Centre, agreed in 1979 to
collaborate in a comprehensive scientific research program in the field of sea-
water desalination by reverse osmosis (RO). This cooperation culminated in the
installation and operation of the Doha Reverse Osmosis Plant (DROP) inaugurated
in December 1984.
DROP has a total capacity of 3,000 m'/d at 25OC. The plant consists of the
following major components (ref. 1):
o A common pretreatment process with a capacity of 15,800 m'/d.
o Three separate RO lines with different membrane module systems operating
in parallel. The modules used are spiral wound (RO line I), hollow fine
fibre (RO line II), and plate and frame (RO line III). Each line has two
stages connected in series and is designed to produce 1,000 ml/d of fresh
water having a total dissolved solids (TDS) content of less than 350 mg/l.
o A separate pretreatment and post-treatment process for each RO line.
o An energy recovery system for both RO lines I and III.
The program's main objective (ref. 2) is to realistically assess different
membrane systems under local environmental conditions. The optimization of the
pretreatment and post-treatment processes, determination of realistic cost data,
and training of local manpower are other important objectives.

OOll-9164/87/$03.50 0 1987 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

424

COMMON PRETREATMENT PROCESS

The design of this process is based on the Wahnbach system (ref. 3, 4).
which has been used in Germany to Rhine river water. This system uses the
basic principles of removing suspended and colloidal particles from the raw
seawater by coagulation, flocculation, and gravity filtration. Thus, the
chlorinated surface seawater is pumped through a reinforced fiberglass pipe to
the common pretreatment unit (Fig. 1) from Doha East Power Station. Chlorine
gas is added if the chlorine content is below the required level. At the inlet
of the destabilization tank, FeClS04 and a polyelectrolyte are added as coagu-
lant and coagulant aid, respectively. The pH is adjusted by adding H2S04.
Water leaves the destabilization tank to the flocculation stage, which con-
sists of three cascaded tanks. The dwelling time of water in this stage is
about 10 min at maximum flow. From the flocculation stage, the treated water
is passed through four parallel multi-layer open gravity filters with an adjust-
able backwash scheme, using the filtered water and compressed air. The filter-
ed water is collected in an intermediate tank before it is pumped to the main
storage tank. Chlorine is added at the inlet of the storage tank for biological
fouling control.
Table 1 shows the thickness and the particle size of the media used. The
velocity of water flow in the filters is 0.143 m/min. Actual operation of the
pilot plant for more than 21 months (ref. 5) proved that this type of pretreat-
ment is effective in reducing the seawater formazine turbidity unit (FTU) to
around 0.35 FTD of up to 7 FTU feed. However, large dosing rates of a coagula-
ting chemical FeC1S04 (up to 4.86 mg/l Fe+3) acid ( up to 87 mg/l H2S04), and
coagulant aid (up to 0.63 mg/l polyelectrolyte) were injected to reduce the
feed seawater silt density index (SD11 from more than 6 to less than 4.

TABLE 1
Filter media in the dual media filters of the Common Pretreatment System of the
RO Pilot Plant at Doha

Layer Material Size (mm) Fill Height (cm)

1 Gravel (7 - 15) 10
2 Gravel (5.6 - 8) 10
3 Gravel (3.15 - 5.6) 10
4 Silica sand (0.7 - 1.25) 100
5 Hydroanthracite (1.5 - 2.6) 70

Fig. 2 shows the mean monthly dosing rates of the chemicals injected in the
seawater treated in the common pretreatment of the RO pilot plant at Doha from
January 1985 to September 1986 and the SD1 measurements of the treated water for
the same interval. A comparison of the chemical consumption in the common pre-
treatment of the RO pilot plant with other RO plants with the same capacity
shows that chemical consumption, and consequently the running cost, is high.
Most membrane manufacturers specify that fifteen-minute-based SD1 values of feed
426

seawater should be less than 3/min. This increases the cost of reducing the
SD1 values of the common pretreatmnet effluent. Moreover, chemical overdosing
can cause premature blocking of the open filters (ref. 6), which requires more
frequent backwash cycles, resulting in a decrease in the water output.
In an effort to optimize the chemical dosing for treating surface seawater
at Doha, experiments were conducted in the R&D laboratory.

b
E __

3 .-

1 --

0.7 --
p#
0.5 --

0.3 --

0.1 -I-
5

3 --

1 --

100 --

60 --

20 -- Time
I, 1 I, I I, 11, I I I I I I I I I I

J F MA M JJ A S 0 N D JF MA MJ J A S (months)

Fig. 2 Monthly average dosing rates of sulfuric acid , coagulant and coagulantaid
in the Common Pretreatment against time and the measured SDI/MIN values

Fig. 3 is a pipe and instrument (P&I) diagram for the pressure type pretrea+
ment used in these experiments. The system consists of two lines in parallel;
in each line are two filters in series. The first filter in each line was
filled with gravel, sand and anthracite from the same materials used to fill
the dual media filters of the common pretreatment of the RO pilot plant.
Fig. 4 shows the thickness and the particle size of the media used. The
second filter in each line was left empty. The coagulating chemical, FeC1S04,
and acid, H2S04, were injected separatley and simultaneously in the feed sea-
water, and the SD1 values of the effluent were measured after different time
intervals following the filter backwash. Experiments were started with a
10,000 l/h flow rate. Various coagulating chemical dosing rates (0.5 - 5 mg/l
Fe+') and acid (15 - 30 mg/l) were injected. However, effluent SD1 measure-
 427

P
Fig. 3 Pipe and Instrument (P&I) diagram for the pressure type experimental
pretreatment system in the R&D laboratory of the RO pilot plant at Doha.

1.5 - 2.6 mm
Hydroanthracite

0.7 - 1.25 llpn

Silica Sand

3.15 - 15 mm Gravel

Fig. 4 Filter media in the first filter of each line of the experimental pre-
treatment system.
428

ments (except for very few readings) were higher than I/min, even after the
elapse of more than 48 h from the filters' backwash. The second filter of each
line was then packed with gravel (3 - 5 mm size) and silica sand (0.6 - 0.8 nrm
topped by 0.3 - 0.5 llnosize) silica sand. Seawater passed through the two
filters of each line in series.
Fig. 5 shows the thickness of the media used. With less than 1 mg/l Fe+',
fifteen-minute-based SD1 measurement taken 30 min from the starting of the
experiment gave 3.56/min and 4.28/min for the effluent of lines 1 and 2, resp-
ectively. More experiments were conducted with different rates of mixed coa-
gulant-acid dosing rates. All experiments were started with 10,000 l/h flow
rate (0.128 m/min velocity of flow in the filter beds).

1 91.5 cm L
1 1

0.3 - 0.5 mm
Silica Sand

0.6 - 0.8 mm
Silica Sand

3 - 5 mm Gravel

Fig. 5 Filter media in the second filter of the experimental pretreatment

plant

Fig. 6 shows the fifteen-minute-based fouling index (SDI) of the treated

+'
seawater versus different acid and Fe dosing rate. Treated seawater with an
+3
SD1 of 1.96/min was obtained at 0.5 mg/l Fe and 20 mg/l acid dosing. Diffe-
rential pressure between in and outside of both filters was less than 0.4 bar
after the elapse of 48 h after backwash with drop in flow of 14% only.
Although experiments are still in progress, gravity (single pass) type
filtration used in the common pretreatment of the RO pilot plant does not seem
to b=a the right choice. This is because the sand filter bed design in the
 429

%uling Index
;DI/min

15 20 25 30 35 40 ppm A2S04

Fig. 6 Fouling index against sulphuric acid dosing for different coagulant
dosing rates

common pretreatment allows the filter to be run continuously for 24 hours.

This is probably the reason why 0.7 - 1.25 mm size silica sand was selected as
bed media; the upper layer of this sand is capable of capturing some of the
entering particles and passing the remaining particles down through the filter
media. These come out with the outcoming effluent, causing the relatively high
SDI. Increasing the coagulating chemical dosing does not improve the filtra-
tion process but may aggravate the working conditions. This explains why, when
the filtrate was passed through another filter with a media of grain size less
than the one used in the first filter, the SD1 of the effluent was reduced with
a much lower dosing rate of coagulating chemical and acid than in the case of
the common pretreatment.

REFERENCES

A.L.A. Malik, K.M. Mousa, N.G. Younan and B.J.R. Rao, Performance evaluation
of three different seawater RO membranes at DROP. In Proceedings of the
Symposium on Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination Technology, Kuwait,
22-24 November 1986, KISR.
A. Hassan, Water Desalination by Reverse Osmosis, KISR/PPlO37/PMM-P-R-7903,
February 1979.
K.H. Bernhardt and H. Schell, Filterability tests on Kuwait seawater, MSS
Report, December 1979.
Krupp Industritechnik, Manual on Common Pretreatment used at DROP, December
1983.
430

5 S. Ebrahim and A. Malik, Pretreatment of surface seawater feed at DROP,

In Proceedings of the Symposium on Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination
Technology, Kuwait, 22-24 November 1986, KISR.
6 R. Nagel, Seawater desalination with polyamide hollow fibre module at DROP
In Proceedings of the Symposium on Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination
Technology, Kuwait, 22-24 November 1986, KISR.