Table of Contents

1 Introduction..........................................................................................................2
1.1 Opuwo Treatment Plant.................................................................................2
1.2 Historical water quality..................................................................................2
1.3 Plant Procurement and Commissioning.........................................................3
2 Objectives............................................................................................................3
3 Plant Process Description.....................................................................................4
3.1 Raw Water Supply..........................................................................................4
3.2 Pre-Treatment................................................................................................5
3.2.1 Acid dosing..............................................................................................5
3.2.2 Anti-Scalant (Scaling inhibitor)................................................................5
3.2.3 Micro-Filtration.........................................................................................6
3.3 Membrane Process Unit.................................................................................6
3.3.1 Nano-Filtration.........................................................................................7
3.3.2 Reverse Osmosis.....................................................................................7
3.4 Brine Disposal................................................................................................7
3.5 Post-Treatment..............................................................................................7
3.6 Membrane Regeneration...............................................................................7
3.6.1 Membrane flushing (Mechanical Cleaning)..............................................8
3.6.2 Cleaning in Cleaning (CIP).......................................................................8
4 Process Evaluation...............................................................................................9
4.1 Plant throughput............................................................................................9
4.1.1 Sufficient Supply......................................................................................9
4.1.2 Membrane Permeability.........................................................................11
4.2 Quality of water supplied.............................................................................13
4.3 NF/RO vs. RO only........................................................................................16
5 Plant Efficiency monitoring.................................................................................18
6 Conclusion..........................................................................................................20
7 Recommendations.............................................................................................21
Recommendations

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1 Introduction
1.1 Opuwo Treatment Plant
The Opuwo water treatment plant of Namwater is located in Kunene region, in the
north-west of Namibia, 720km from Windhoek. The plant make uses of membrane
technology to produce water of a group A classification according to Namibian
standards at a rate of 50m3/h (1000m3/day) to supply the town of Opuwo, which was
estimated in 2009 to have a population of about 12 000. The brine from the plant is
disposed in a near-by river and it is not treated further. The Opuwo treatment plant
consists of a two stage membrane configuration, with the first stage using Nano-
Filtration (NF) technology and second stage using Reverse Osmosis (RO)
technology. The first stage consists of four pressure vessels and each pressure
vessel is having six Nano-Filtration membranes, while stage two consists of five
pressure vessels with six Reverse Osmosis membranes per vessel. Each stage is fed
by two high pressure pumps, with one in operation and the other on the stand-by.

1.2 Historical water quality

The town extracts water from an underground aquifer by means of five boreholes,
situated next to a small river on the outskirts the town. In previous years, there was
no treatment plant in Opuwo therefore the town was supplied directly with water
from boreholes. The Opuwo borehole water is classified as group D water according
to Namwater standards, meaning that the water was of poor quality, and not
suitable for human consumption. This classification was mainly due to excessively
high concentration of Sulfates (SO42-) as well as high concentration of Calcium and
Magnesium, resulting in high total hardness (see Table 1). The situation in Opuwo
was said to be threatening a whole range of civil, economic and environmental
rights of residents, as the quality of water was detrimental to the health of
residents. Apart from health the implications, the water was very hard therefore
causing excessive scaling in the piping system of the town as well as other water
retaining appliances. Scaling in pipes is unfavorable as it causes blockages in pipes,
thereafter, excessive leakages and even replacement of pipelines which is costly to
the management of the town.

Require
Determinant Opu ments
s Units wo (Class A)
pH
6-9
pH Units 7.81
Turbidity NTU 0.68 1
231.0
Conductivity mS/m 2 150
1547.
TDS Calculated mg/l 80 -
165.4
Na mg/l 0 100
K mg/l 4.56 200
302.9
Ca as CaCO3 mg/l 8 150
Mg as CaCO3 mg/l 771.7 70

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 9
556.8
SO4 mg/l 1 200
NO3 as N mg/l 4.34 10
F mg/l 0.28 2
189.6
Cl mg/l 0 250
Table 1: Opuwo raw water compared to the requirements of class A

As seen in the Table 1, the poor quality is mainly due to Calcium and Magnesium
hardness, as well as the sulfates as highlighted. The conductivity and Sodium levels
are actually in an acceptable range as they fit in the Group B water classification,
which is specified as good quality water.

1.3 Plant Procurement and Commissioning

With the poor quality of borehole water in Opuwo, that has a negative impact on
human health as well as the economy of the town, the need to build a treatment
plant that can produce Group A water, that is regarded as excellent for human
consumption, was realized. A membrane treatment plant was then commissioned in
September 2008, to produce final water that is of Group A to the town of Opuwo.
The commissioning of this plant was done by Aqua Services and Engineering, where
a treatment plant that exploits the method of Nano-Filtration membrane technology
was commissioned. Initially it was a two stage Nanofiltration membrane process
which yielded a brine flow of 16m3/h as well as a permeate flow of 50m3/h. The two
stage Nano-Filtration process did not produce the desired water quality and
therefore the plant was re-designed. The second stage of Nanofiltration membranes
was replaced with a stage of Reverse Osmosis membranes so as to boost the
quality performance of the plant and yield the desired results of Group A water at a
rate of 50m3/h, and at a recovery of 80%. The plant is a high-tech installation that
requires skilled operation and maintenance. Initially the operation and maintenance
of the plant was carried out by Aqua Services and Engineering until the
commissioning, where after it was handed over to Namwater. The plant is also
monitored and operated remotely by management through the SCADA system in
Windhoek. The brine with a conductivity of about 10ms/cm is discarded in to the
near-by dry river, without any further treatment.

2 Objectives
The objective of this report is to evaluate the current performance of the Opuwo
plant with reference to the design specifications. This process evaluation is aimed at
reviewing the goal and objectives of the plant, if they are met, and inform the steps
forward as well as the current performance regarding the Opuwo treatment plant.
Plant evaluation is termed as the reconciliation, rectification, and interpretation of
plant measurements to develop an adequate understanding of the plant operation.
The results of an evaluation are ultimately used to discriminate among causes for
deterioration of plant performance, operating regions, and possible operating
decisions. The main purpose of plant evaluation has always been to understand
plant operations such that relational models between current operation and design
specifications can be developed. The intended results are better economical

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operations, better control, safer operation and better subsequent design. A stable
operation and understanding of the Opuwo plant is desired.

Measurements taken within the past six months from the plant are the foundation
for the analysis. The strategic data and accompanying logic, upon which the
evaluation is based on, are also products of the organized input of multiple
partners, and using the collective knowledge of the plant operators as well as
technical persons, and management who are knowledgeable on the running of the
plant. Based on the evaluation, as well as the findings, it is necessary to assess the
impact and progress of the current performance and do necessary
recommendations to improve the performance. The Conclusion drawn from the
process analysis may lead to modifications of the plant as well as improved design.

3 Plant Process Description

3.1 Raw Water Supply
Raw water that is supplied to plant is provided by five boreholes that are situated
alongside the river. The raw water is pumped from the boreholes to a 100m 3 raw
water collector reservoir at the treatment plant. The boreholes are operated in an
automatic mode to control the level of the reservoir and keep it above 80%. The
boreholes are pumped at different flow rates therefore they are combined to give
the needed flow rate of 63 - 67 m3/h. The boreholes also differ in water quality;
certain boreholes have high conductivity, meaning they hold high concentrations of
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). Figure 1 below display the conductivity associated with
each borehole and the borehole naming is listed in table 2.

Figure 1: Conductivity on each borehole

Borehole Number Borehole numbering

1 WW22864

2 WW23137

3 WW29045

4 WW29046

5 WW29047
Table 2: Show the naming of boreholes as well as their numbering

The conductivity is high at the last borehole, the further you move alongside the
river, the conductivity increases. The concerned parameters for these boreholes are
mainly Sulphates, and total hardness that requires the need of a treatment plant at
Opuwo. Figure 2 shows that the borehole five (WW29047) does indeed supply the
poorest quality water as it is also high in total hardness as well as Sulphates.

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Figure 2: Total Hardness and Sulphates vs. Boreholes

There are usually three boreholes in operation that deliver water to the 100m 3
collector reservoir, from where it gravitates at a rate of 70m3/h to the plant for
treatment.

When the plant is not in operation, there is an emergency by-pass line that directly
draws water from the collector reservoir, to the high lift pumps that will supply the
untreated water to the town. When this mode is functional, the water is not safe as
it is the untreated water, with high content of Sulphates.

3.2 Pre-Treatment
The purpose of pretreatment is to control and minimize membrane fouling,
membrane degradation and reducing flux decline, thereby increasing the efficiency
and lifespan of the membranes. An accumulation of one or more foreign substance
on the surface of the membrane will result in a loss of rate of flow through the
membrane. This will result in the need for higher operating pressures to maintain
the specified water production, as well as resulting in increased energy
consumption and associated cost of pumping. The conventional pretreatment
process mainly consists of an anti-scalant, acid addition as well as micro-filtration.

3.2.1 Acid dosing

Hydrochloric acid, used for pH correction is continually dosed at a rate of 12.5 l/h, to
lower the pH to 6.60 pH units. The acid used is the commercial 30% HCL that is
necessary to prevent inorganic salts such as manganese, iron e.t.c from
precipitating and causing scaling at the surface of the membranes. The acid is
supplied and delivered by Aqua Services and Engineering. It is dosed from two
5000l tanks via any one of the two dosing, which operates in sequence, when one is
online, the other pump will be on stand-by. Since this is a dangerous chemical,
safety precautions are needed at all times.

3.2.2 Anti-Scalant (Scaling inhibitor)

Anti-scalant used for Opuwo raw water is a Hydrex 4109, which is a liquid
formulation based upon a blend of phosphonates, which are extremely effective in
preventing scale formation. Hydrex 4109 is excellent for sulphate, fluoride and silica
scales, very good for carbonate based and phosphate scales for metal oxides. The
dosing rate is determined by a software program of the suppliers of this chemical
and it is based on the historical water quality of Opuwo boreholes. Currently the
anti-scalant is dosed at a rate of 1.2 l/h and has thus far increased from the initial
value of 0.94l/h as indicated in the operation and maintenance manual. According
to the Operating & Maintenance manual, the dosage and type of anti-scalant need
to be verified periodically, at least once in every three months and mostly when the
raw water quality changes and should be adjusted by an engineer until the plant
has reached its dynamic equilibrium. In the case of Opuwo, the main parameter to
monitor in the raw water is the silica, as silica concentrations of above 50ppm is

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known to be very scaling and can negatively affect the membranes. Currently the
silicate concentration is around 48ppm. The anti-scalant is diluted with permeate
water to give a 1:1 ratio concentration.

3.2.3 Micro-Filtration
The raw water from the boreholes does contain a certain concentration of dissolved
solids as well as suspended solids. Suspended solids may consist of inorganic
particles, colloids and biological debris such as micro-organisms and algae. The
quality of the raw water is also defined in terms of concentrations of total
suspended solids (TSS). Measurement of turbidity in Opuwo is the key test that
generally indicates the quality of the raw water in terms of total suspended solids.
Micro-filtration is a purely physical process in which solid particles are captured on
the surface of the filter, and any particle larger than the pore size of the filter
cannot squeeze through. In other words, micro-filtration process removes only
foulants or materials in a solid phase before they enter the membrane process.

At Opuwo treatment plant there are two sets of micro-filtration pressure vessels in
parallel meaning the filters operate at the same time. Each pressure vessel is fitted
with 15 Amazon 6315 series, 40 inch cartridge filters, with a pore size of 5µ
meaning the cartridges only filter out suspended solids larger than 5µ. This
cartridge filters are only supposed to be operated when the raw water turbidity is
below 1NTU to prevent frequent blockages of the cartridges that will lead to
frequent stoppage of the plant. The pressure drop across the pressure vessel should
not exceed 10kPa; therefore the pressure drop as well as the flow rate after the
cartridge filters indicated by flow-meter FE100, is an indication of when the filters
are clogged and need cleaning or replacement. The cartridge filters are cleaned by
physically washing the solids particles off with the horse pipe, to prepare them for
re-use.

After micro-filtration, the water is primed to enter the membranes, without any fear
of fouling and scaling that has an adverse effect on membrane performance. After
micro-filtration, the water is stored in a 1000L membrane feed tank prior to being
pumped to the membrane process unit.

3.3 Membrane Process Unit

The membranes are typically housed in cylindrical cartridges, containing spirally
wrapped membrane sheets. The design is two stages Nano-filtration and Reverse
Osmosis membrane system, with a 4-5 array design mode respectively. The overall
permeate flow rate produced by the plant is 50m3/h and a brine rate of 13.5m3/h
according to the design. With reference to the Operating and Maintenance manual,
the desired recovery is 80% for the entire plant. The plant is designed to yield
permeate water quality with a conductivity of less than 800µS/cm.

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3.3.1 Nano-Filtration
The filtered feed water from the membrane feed tank is pumped to the first stage
which consist of four pressure vessels. The feed water is pumped to yield a pressure
of 5.8 to 6.1 bar, by two grundfos pumps that operate in sequence (one in
operation, another one in stand-by). This stage consists of 24 Toray SU620 8-inch
membranes, with each vessel consisting of 6 membranes. This stage is designed to
produce permeate at a rate of about 19.5m3/h. the permeate flow rate is adjustable
and is controlled by valve V201 while the feed and brine pressures are controlled by
the needle valve VN201.

3.3.2 Reverse Osmosis

The brine from the NF membrane is blended with the raw water directly from the
membrane feed tank which becomes the feed to the reverse osmosis stage. The RO
membranes are fed by two booster grundfos pumps giving the designed permeate
flow rate of 31.5m3/h and the brine of 13m3/h with the operating pressure between
10.8 to 12 bar. The Reverse Osmosis stage is installed with Toray TMG20-400
membranes as well as Dow Filmtec LE400, 8 inch membranes housed in five
pressure vessels, giving a total of 30 reverse osmosis membranes. The type of the
Opuwo RO membranes is the cross-linked polyamise composite, spiral wound
membranes with the pressure drop of 1.2bar over an element. They are fitted in
Wavecyber PV226RF pressure vessels.

3.4 Brine Disposal

Brine is the salt concentrate remaining on the upstream side of the Reverse
Osmosis membrane after the separation process. The brine contains higher
concentrations of salts and other impurities than are found in the feed water and
that is why the brine stream is higher in conductivity and TDS concentrations. The
Opuwo brine is approximated to have an amount of 10mS/cm of conductivity.

Due to the chemical make-up of the brine, it is essential to dispose the brine in a
safe and acceptable method. The brine at Opuwo treatment plant is discharged at a
rate of 13m3/h in to a near-by dry riverbed, which flows in the direction of the
boreholes. The current practice of disposing brine with a significant content of TDS
into a riverbed is not environmentally acceptable as it has appalling consequences.
The surface disposal of brine has the potential of polluting the ground water aquifer
that is used as the feed water to the plant, and this is more likely to result due to
the high salinity of the brine.

3.5 Post-Treatment
Post-treatment consists of stabilizing the water and preparing it for distribution. The
objective of post-treatment is to ensure that the product water is safe to drink. In
the case of Opuwo, currently only disinfection is executed. Disinfection is achieved
through the addition of chlorine gas dissolved in water. This is a normal and
accepted water treatment process and it provide water suitable for immediate

1
consumption. Disinfection is employed to prevent any harmful bacteria and/or
viruses to enter the distribution system.

3.6 Membrane Regeneration

Membrane fouling has become the most encountered problem in the membrane
treatment process. Depending on the membrane type, feed water quality and
process conditions, the membrane loses its performance over time due to fouling of
the membranes. Fouling is basically a process resulting in loss of performance of a
membrane due to the deposition of suspended or dissolved solids on the membrane
surface, at its pore openings or within its pores. Fouling has a bad effect on the
system’s performance as it reduces the permeate water flux and also increases the
salt passage, resulting in decreasing water quality as a result of higher TDS. Fouling
not only reduces the water flux but also changes the retention of the membranes.
However it is very unlikely to completely eliminate fouling or totally restore the
membrane performance. Controlling fouling is utmost important, one of the
techniques used is membrane regeneration or membrane cleaning. Methods
involved in membrane regeneration are membrane flushing (mechanical cleaning)
as well as chemical cleaning (cleaning in place). Membrane regeneration is of
paramount economic and scientific importance and has significant impact on
process operation. The two methods used in Opuwo for membrane regeneration are
described below.

3.6.1 Membrane flushing (Mechanical Cleaning)

Membrane flushing is often described as a mechanical cleaning process whereby
the membrane surface is flushed clean with Reverse Osmosis permeate water.
Membranes require occasional flushing to limit biological fouling. Biological fouling
can increase membrane process energy consumption and cause malfunctions to the
membranes. Flushing is done with Reverse Osmosis permeate water only, which is
circulated through the nanofiltration membranes for one hour. After Nanofiltration,
the CIP tank is than filled again with Reverse Osmosis permeate that is to be
circulated for another hour in the Reverse Osmosis membranes. On average, the
membrane flushing takes about three to four hours, and this process is done on a
weekly basis.

The membranes should not remain with brine inside when not in operation,
therefore membrane flushing is recommended when the plant shutdowns, even for
a small period.

3.6.2 Cleaning in Cleaning (CIP)

Chemical cleaning is a process whereby impurities or foulants by means of a
chemical agent. Opuwo treatment plant requires cleaning of the membranes at a
monthly interval. This is done in two phases, by mixing with the low pH cleaning
agent with about 4000 liters of RO permeate water and repeating the same step
with high pH cleaning agent.

Making up the low pH solution requires filling up the CIP tank with RO permeate
water to about 80% full and add 30% Hydrochloric acid (HCL) solution. The acid is
added to bring the pH to between 2-3 pH units or up to the target of 2.5 pH units.

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The solution is pumped into the Nanofiltration membranes (1st stage) for about an
hour and after an hour of recirculation the tank is then emptied/drained. After the
low pH cleaning, the CIP tank is again filled with RO permeate and a high pH
solution is prepared. The high pH cleaning is done with 75 kg of STPP (Sodium
tripolyphosphate) plus 37.5kg Na-EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium
salt). The solution’s pH is adjusted to obtain a target pH of 9 pH units (lowering by
adding HCL, and raise by adding Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)). The solution is then
circulated in the Nanofiltration stage for another hour.

The second stage also uses the same procedure when cleaning take place. The
Reverse osmosis stage also has a high and a low pH cleaning which is done the
same way as that of the first stage (Nanofiltration). The low pH of the Reverse
Osmosis stage requires a target pH of one pH unit, while the high pH requires a
target pH of 12 pH units. The low and high pH cleaning each takes about an hour of
recirculation.

The entire cleaning therefore results in about 16, 000 liters of cleaning effluent
being generated every month and form part of the waste water being disposed to
the river without any treatment.

4 Process Evaluation
Certain restrictions imposed by nature must be taken into account when
analyzing/evaluating an existing plant. You cannot, for example, specify an input to
the plant of 1000m3 of water and an output of 2000m3 of water or anything else.
The basis for both of these observations is the law of conservation of mass, which
states that mass, can neither be created nor destroyed. Statements based on the
law of conservation of mass such as “total mass input = total mass output” are
examples of mass balance or material balance. The analysis of an existing one is
not complete until it is established that the input and output of the entire process or
individual unit balances, satisfy the balance equation. By accounting for material
entering and leaving a system, mass flows can be identified which might have been
unknown, or difficult to measure without this technique. The performance analysis
was performed around the Namwater Nano-filtration/Reverse Osmosis purification
plant in Opuwo, to evaluate and analyze the performance of the plant.

In addition, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) as the parameter representing solute

concentration and data from the design manual were used to verify the design
analysis, while data from the experiments and from SCADA correspond to the
analysis of the plant in operation for the past six months.

4.1 Plant throughput

Throughput is the amount of output that can be produced by a system or
component in a given period of time. It has a meaning similar to that of capacity,
and the two are often used as synonyms. In Opuwo, the plant was designed to a
capacity of 50m3/h, with a daily target of 1000m3/day. This amount is basically
derived from the consumption of water in the town of Opuwo.

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4.1.1 Sufficient Supply
The final water of Opuwo is pumped to a reservoir in town which then is distributed
to the town by gravity at a rate of about 80m 3/h for 19 hours a day. Therefore the
Opuwo residents consume about 1500m3/day, excluding the Opuwo district hospital
and the Opuwo country hotel. Therefore the demand of water to the town is more
than that what the plant can supply. Since the plant is designed to produce 50m3/h,
on a full day operation without any stoppage, the plant can produce 1200m3/day.

Furthermore the design throughput of 1000m3/day is not always achieved due to

certain delays caused by plant stoppages. There are a number of factors that
contribute to plant stoppages, and reduced runtime of the plant. The graph below
shows the amount of water supplied to the town per month compared to the
specific monthly target.

Figure 3: Monthly production

According to the graph above, during the months of March to the June, the plant did
not reach or even exceed its production target. This is mainly caused by the plant
stoppages as it limits the amount of time the plant is expected to be in operation.
There are a number of factors that affects the run time of the plant, and these
factors are listed in table 3 below.

1. Membrane According to the plant’s Operation and Maintenance

Cleaning manual, the Chemical cleaning should take at least four
hours. One hour NF low pH cleaning, another hour NF
high pH cleaning and the remaining two hours are for
RO low and high pH cleaning respectively.

Currently the situation on the ground is that the

cleaning takes about nine hours. This is due to cleaning
of individual pressure vessel’s, therefore the process
takes about two hours to do low pH cleaning on one
stage only.

The manual states that the cleaning is automatic, which

is basically not the case, as an operator needs to fill up
the tank manually and empty it manually and fill it up
again by restarting the plant. This entire process
consumes time.

2. Cartridge filters There are certain days when cartridge filters block
several times in a day. When the cartridge filters clog,
they reduce the feed flow to the plant, and therefore
they need to be replaced with cleaned cartridge filters.
Replacing cartridges takes about 30min to 40min.

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 During the days when the water is very fouling due to
high turbidity, the replacement of cartridges takes
about two to three hours a day.

3. Boreholes The borehole pumps do experience breakdowns

breakdown occasionally, when two or three boreholes that supply a
large amount of water to plant are not in operation, this
affects the supply of water to the collector reservoir,
and causing the level of the reservoir to drop. Since the
reservoir feed the plant by gravity, the level of the tank
has an effect to the plant’s feed water supply rate. If the
level drops, the raw water supply rate decrease,
resulting in insufficient water supply to the plant.

4. Insufficient This happens when the chemicals specifically

chemicals Hydrochloric acid are either ordered late or being
delivered late. This causes the pH to excessively
increase up to 7pH units which causes the plant to
automatically shutdown. The plant will not start until the
pH drops to below 7pH units.

5. Insufficient raw When the supply of raw water to the plant is insufficient,
water the rate at which the membrane feed tank level drops
increases. As the tank level drops to below 50%, the
plant automatically shutdown.

To prevent the membranes from the hydraulic shock

due to frequent start and stop of the plant, it is
recommended to activate a by-pass to find the solution
to the problem, which is mainly caused by air-locks or
cartridge filter blocking.

6. Low level of the When the reservoir in town drops to below 20%, the
town’s reservoir plant is mainly stopped and the by-pass is activated.
This is mainly due to the water demand is higher than
the supply.
Table 3: Factors that affect plant's availability

1.1.1 Membrane Permeability

Reverse osmosis and nanofiltration system performance is mainly characterized
by two parameters, permeate flow and permeate quality. Membrane
permeability can be described as the rate of flow of water through the semi-
permeable membrane and often defined as an amount of water
produced/permeating per unit area and time. The permeability of a membrane
mainly depends on the feed pressure as well as the osmotic pressure and it is
negatively affected by concentration polarization and membrane fouling to such

1
an extent that the membranes deteriorate and become un-operational. The
pressure needed to produce the required permeate flow for a specific
membrane depends also on the designed permeate flux. The higher the
permeate flow, the higher the feed pressure, therefore pressure and flux are
directly proportional.

Reverse osmosis and nanofiltration performance is typically evaluated by the

change of flux and product quality over time. The change of product quality for
the Opuwo plant will be discussed in section 4.2 under quality of water supplied.
The membrane flux always decline over time. This is due to membrane fouling
and therefore less is water passing through the membrane. When flux decline is
noticed, membrane cleaning is performed to restore the flux, but due to
permanent fouling of membranes, the flux continue to decline further up to the
point where the membranes have fully degraded and are no longer in a
condition of operating and this is termed as a critical flux. One of the ways of
limiting operation costs is to operate at a constant filtration flux below the
critical flux. However, due to the presence of scalants and foulants in raw
waters, the critical flux is quite low which implies an increase in membrane area
and thus in investment cost. Therefore operation is basically above the critical
flux and once the actual flux of the membrane reaches the critical flux, these
denote that membranes need to be replaced.

Figure 4: RO and NF Flux over time

Figure 4 illustrate the decline of the RO flux and an increase in NF flux. RO has a
higher rejection and recovery than the Nano-filtration, which is why the RO is more
exposed to scalant and foulants. This is because the overall plant is operated at a
constant flux rate and producing 50m3/h. The decline in RO flux will eventually
causes a decline in an overall flux of the plant; to maintain the constant flux of the
plant, the NF flux need to be increased and the Nanofiltration flux will compensate
the loss of flux from the RO. The graph indicates that as the RO flux decline, the NF
flux increase; therefore there is a constant outflow of water from the plant which is
50m3/h. The green arrow on the graph indicates the date when the RO flux was
equal to the NF flux.

Figure 5: The day when the membranes need replacement

According to the Filmtec membrane specifications and technical manual, the

minimum flux of the RO membranes should be 15% lower than the original flux. The
Opuwo RO stage was designed to produce 30m3/h therefore when the RO permeate
flow reaches 25.5m3/h, the membranes are fouled beyond restoration and need to
be replaced. The graph (figure 5) illustrate that the RO membranes will be

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permanently fouled and be replaced on the 24th February 2011 as per current flux
loss rate.

1.2 Quality of water supplied

The Opuwo treatment plant was designed to produce water of Group A quality to
the town of Opuwo at a rate of 50m3/h. Currently the plant is not performing up to
standard as the water being produced is classified as Gruop B. The salts rejection
has thus far decreased with 13.2% from the previous year (2009).

Total
Total Hardnes Percenta
hardness -
Ye Hardness – Classifica s ge
Permeate
ar Feed (mg/l tion Passage increase
(mg/l
CaCO3) (%) (%)
CaCO3)
20
A
09 240.58 1076.67 22.35
42.35
20
B
10 362.08 1138.33 31.81
Table 4: The Change in Total Hardness

Table 3 indicates the enormous increase in total hardness of the permeate water,
furthermore the total hardness (Ca + Mg) passing through the membranes has
increased with 42% over the two years. The classification of the Opuwo final water
as Group B was due to the Total Hardness that is above the limit of 300 ppm
(CaCO3). The data above are the yearly average from the main data base of
chemical analysis. The passage of salts through the membrane depends on the
performance of the membrane. If the performance of the membrane deteriorates,
the salt passage increases and the result is poor water quality.

Figure 6: Increase in Conductivity

The main measurement to indicate the amount of dissolved salts in the water is by
conductivity analysis, which is converted by calculation into Total Dissolved Solids
(TDS). This represents the amount of salts in the water. The conductivity of the
permeate water is increasing, thus the quality of the water produced is decreasing.
Figure 6 indicate that the increase in water conductivity might be due to the
increase in feed water conductivity. This is due to the design inaccuracy as the
maximum raw water design conductivity was listed as 2450µS/cm, which in actual
fact is very low compared to the current conductivity of the raw water which ranges
from 2800µS/cm to 3000µS/cm.

The table 4 shows the rejection rate for individual pressure vessels and as
illustrated in the table, the reverse osmosis A and B pressure vessels are performing
poorly compared to the other RO pressure vessels. According to the operators at
the plant, the RO pressure vessels consist of different types of membranes A and B

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pressure vessels consist of Toray TMG20-400, whilst C, D and E Reverse Osmosis
pressure vessels consist of Dow Filmtec LE400 membranes. Thus the Toray
membranes are performing worse with the current raw water quality when
compared to the Dow Filmtec membranes.

Avera Avera
Nano-Filtration Vessels ge Reverse Osmosis Vessels ge
A B C D A B C D E
Rejection 18.7 31.1 25.9 21.5 90.9 91.2 97.6 96.5 97.8
% 0 8 8 9 24.36 5 0 5 6 5 94.84
Table 5: The average rejection rate for individual pressure vessels

Figure 7 illustrates the increase of salts passage through the membranes. The
amount of salts passing through the membranes increase therefore RO membranes
performance also decreases. Hence the rejection of the membranes has also
decreased and it is therefore not constant. The performance of the RO membranes
has been discussed earlier in that the performance is decreasing due to the
decrease in flux. The plant has a constant flux therefore the solute passage of the
entire plant has to increase because of the NF flux increase, and the NF has a very
low rejection compared to the RO. The increase in salt passage is also evident as
there is an increase in the conductivity of the permeate water.

Furthermore, the cause of the decrease in Opuwo water quality might be due to the
decrease in the RO flux and this was worsened by the decrease in raw water
quality. The increase in the NF flux basically also have an effect on the quality of the
water being produced as the NF has a low rejection therefore the salt passage of
the NF is high. The increase of flow in the NF permeate has thus far increased the
overall salt passage of the plant as a whole causing the quality of the final water to
be worsening.

Figure 7: Graph for Solute passage over the membranes

1.3 NF/RO vs. RO only

The Opuwo plant consists of a two stage membrane system whereby the first stage
is the Nano-filtration process and the second stage is the reverse osmosis process.
With this current design, the overall flux of the plant is constant as the permeate
flow from the Nano-filtration is adjustable to maintain the constant final water
output flow. The issue with this current design has an effect on the quality of the
water as the RO membranes begin to clog, the flux of the RO drops and the flux of
the NF has to be adjusted upwards in order to maintain the plant production flow at
50m3/h. Since the NF has poor permeate quality, the increase in the NF permeate
flow will automatically affect the quality of the final water.

There are provisions for modification of the plant, which include a system with
Reverse osmosis only. The design of the RO system has been described below. The

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reasons for modifications are to improve the water quality and maintain Group A
water. To maintain the Group A water quality, the RO system will be designed with a
constant recovery. A system with high permeate flux rate is therefore likely to
experience higher fouling rates and more frequent chemical cleaning, whereas the
system with a low recovery rate will not be economical. Therefore the conservative
approach is to design a system with an optimum flux in order to enjoy a trouble free
system operation and an increased membrane lifespan.

Considering the feed source and the quality of the feed water, the suitable flow
configuration will be the current system, which is continuous operation where the
operating conditions are kept constant with time. The membranes needed for
brackish water are the current 8inch RO Filmtec LE 400 elements; these
membranes have a surface area of 37.2m2. The current permeate flux is
0.025m3/m2.h and a recovery of 80%.

Using the permeate flow of 50m3/h, the number of RO elements will be:

Dividing the permeate flow rate QP by the design flux JW and the membrane surface
area of LE 400 will give the number of elements needed NE.

NE=QpJW.SE=500.025×37.2=54 elements

The number of pressure vessels:

The number of elements NE divided by the number of elements per pressure vessel
NEPV. For larger systems, 6 elements vessels are standard therefore NEPV is 6

NV=NENEPV=546=9 PV

According to membrane manufactures, 80% recovery for the system of

underground feed requires a two stage system. The number of stages defines how
many pressure vessels in series the feed will pass through until it exits the system.

The relation of the number of pressure vessels in subsequent is called the staging
ratio R. the ideal staging of a system is such that each stage operates at the same
fraction of the system recovery. The staging ratio R of a system with n stages and a
system recovery r can be calculated:

R=[11-r]1n

R=[11-0.8]12=2.24

The number of pressure vessels in the first stage NV(1) is calculated with the staging
ratio R from the total number of vessels NV.

NV1=NV1+R-1

NV1=91+2.24-1=6PV

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Therefore according to design, the system will consist of 6 pressure vessels in the
first stage and 3 pressure vessels in the second stage, meaning that for the current
flux and recovery, the system design will be a 6:3 array system. The chosen system
must then be analyzed using the Reverse Osmosis System Analysis (ROSA)
computer program. This program calculates the feed pressure and estimate the
permeate quality of the system as well as operating data of all individual elements.
It is then easy to optimize the system by changing the arrangement of the
membranes to yield the desired results.

Due to the pressure drop in the feed/brine channel and the increase of the osmotic
pressure from the feed to the concentrate, the permeate flow rate of the elements
at the concentrate end will be lower than the flow rate of the lead elements. The
goal of the design is to balance the flow rate of elements in different positions. This
is achieved by the following means:

• Boosting the feed pressure between stages (preferred for efficient energy
use).
• Applying a permeate backpressure only to the first stage (low system cost
alternative).

The difference between the NF/RO system and the RO membranes system only,
operating at the same permeate flux and recoveries are:

• The RO system only will produce far better water quality then the
combination of NF and RO because RO membranes have a higher rejection
rate than the NF.
• The RO membranes only will produce a more constant permeate quality than
the NF/RO system since the RO permeate flux can be variable.
• The lead elements of the RO membranes only are exposed to better water
quality as they receive the normal feed water, unlike the current system
where the RO receive water with the conductivity of about 350mS/m.
Therefore the replacement frequency will be less when compared to the
current system.

List of Symbols Definition

SE Membrane surface area per element

(m2)

QP System permeate flow (m3/h)

NE Number of elements in system

NV Number of six element pressure

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 vessels in system

NV(1) Number of pressure vessels in first

stage of 2-stage system

JW Permeate flux of the system (m3/m2.h)

NEPV Number of elements per pressure

vessels

R Staging Ratio

r System Recovery (expressed as a

fraction) = permeate flow/feed flow
Table 6: Symbols definitions

1 Plant Efficiency monitoring

Effective operation and maintenance of a reverse osmosis water treatment plant
often revolves around the ability of administrators and key personnel to make
informed decisions in a timely manner. RO membrane systems have long relied
upon data ‘normalization’ to simplify raw operational data into meaningful and
accurate trends. The performance of the membrane degrades with time due to
fouling or deposition of materials on the membrane surface. The fouling of
membranes results in a significant cost impact in terms of flux/production losses,
energy efficiency, and maintenance costs. Plant efficiency monitoring has the ability
to diagnose any deviation in membrane performance and the causes as well.
Performance monitoring also helps detects the change in the raw water quality so
that possible adjustments can be made in terms of chemical dosage and operating
parameters.

In order to maintain the optimum efficiency of the membranes, plant performance

characteristics must be monitored and stored, at least occasionally or at the best
continuously. This performance information must include the following parameters
in a form of graphs.

• Plant’s Availability: this graph indicate the running hours of the plant and
how many hours the plant has stopped on a monthly basis. The number of
hours that the plant stopped can either be collected from the SCADA
information or can be manually entered from the log-sheet.
• Permeability: this graph shows the performance of the membrane
throughout the month. The graph has a format as the graph in figure 5. The
importance of this number is that it measures how fast the water permeates
through the membranes. This graph also indicates the date as to when
membranes replacement need to be prepared for.

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• Recovery: recovery is also another variable to be monitored on a monthly
basis. Recovery is the ratio of the permeate flow to the feed water flow and is
given in percentage.
• Salt Passage: this graph plots the percent salt passage of the membranes,
a format of this graph is shown in figure 7. The importance of this value
measures the efficiency of the membrane on how fast the salts pass through
the membranes. This number is also affected by the ionic make up of the
feed water.
• Conductivity: this graph shows the conductivity of the feed as well as
permeate’s, and the format is shown in figure 6 of this document. This graph
will help to detect the increase or decrease in the quality of water produced
by the membranes and the quality of water supplied by the boreholes.
• Production: this graph is shown in figure 3, and show the amount of water
produced in a month.

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1 Conclusion
In conclusion, the Opuwo plant has not being performing according to the design
and its purpose of implementation as it is suppose to produce Group A water at a
rate of 1000m3/day and instead it is producing Group B.

1) This is due to the decline of the Reverse Osmosis flux that is mainly caused by
membrane fouling. The RO flux decline has caused the NF flux to increase and
therefore maintaining the same overall plant flux as there is a constant final
water outflow. Maintaining the quantity produced by the plant constant has thus
far a negative impact on the quality of the water.
2) There are three main causes of the RO flux decline, which are:
• The method of membrane cleaning currently being utilized, as it is not the
same method as stipulated in the operation and maintenance manual for
the plant.
• The other noted factor is the membrane preservation. The Opuwo
membranes are not preserved in a relevant solution during lengthy plant
shutdowns, as the recommended solution basically prevent biological
growth in membranes and biological growth can cause serious harm to
the membranes.
• The third factor is the membrane flushing before shutdown. It has been
boldly noted in the operation and maintenance manual that membranes
should not be left standing with brine and therefore membrane flushing
with RO water should be implemented, even if the plant is shutting down
for shorter periods of time.
1) It is further concluded that the cause of the poor performance of the
membranes are due to the change in raw water quality. The manufactures have
designed the membranes with lower than current maximum raw water
conductivity. The information supplied to the designers was incorrect, as the
maximum raw water conductivity was noted as 2450µS/cm whereas the raw
water conductivity stands at about 3000µS/cm. The raw water quality has a
significant impact on the permeate water quality.
2) Due to many prolonged stoppages, the plant has not been achieving its monthly
target. The causes of the plant stoppage are stipulated in table 2 of this
document and further recommendations are stated below. One of the causes of
the plant shutdown is the final water reservoir in town running low, therefore it is
concluded that the water demand of the town of has increased, exceeding the
supply rate.

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1 Recommendations
As stated in the conclusion, it is therefore recommended

1) To further reduce the rate at which the RO flux is declining, by following proper
membrane cleaning as stipulated in the manual. Proper membrane cleaning has
an enormous advantage on improving the membrane flux and a prolonged
lifespan of the membrane.
2) To install a new process to accomplish membrane preservation and further to
prevent membrane fouling by biological growth in the membranes during
extended shutdowns. The recommended preservative is a food grade
preservative called Sodium Metabisulphite (SMBS) which is required to be stored
on tanks located on-site.
3) The membrane system also requires constant membrane efficiency monitoring.
There are a number of important variables that require constant monitoring. The
Opuwo plant has a considerably more complex method of performance
prediction and efficiency monitoring. The complexity is mainly due to a number
of unknown variables, such as the NF brine flow and concentration, and this is
required for a plant material balance around the NF stage.
4) It has also been observed that the current SCADA screen requires tremendous
update to reflect the Opuwo plant. There are certain variables that are not listed
or shown on the SCADA screen and the process flow diagram also need update
to prevent confusion as to how the plant is designed and operated.
5) It has been observed also that the inlet pressure of the RO (PI202), has been just
constant on the SCADA and does not match the value online.
6) On system performance evaluation, regular calibration of online instrument is
needed for accurate plant efficiency monitoring; therefore it is excellent to train
operators on instruments calibration.
7) Literature has noted that temperature has a significant effect on the
performance of the plant therefore it is a good idea to record it on the plant log
sheet. Therefore the current log sheet need to be changed as it does not include
all necessary parameters required. Furthermore the log sheet data need to be
entered on the computer for back-up, therefore an excel spreadsheet for this
data is required.

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8) It has been noted in the operation and maintenance manual the anti-scalant
type and dosage needs to be verified periodically, at least once every three
months. But the type and dosage of the anti-scalant has been constant for quite
a long time even when the raw water quality has changed. Therefore major
adjustments to the operating parameters and chemical dosages, even possibly
changing the type of anti-scalant is required as the raw water quality has
changed. The adjustments should be done until the plant dynamic equilibrium is
reached, as the current operation and dosage is based on the design raw water
quality which has changed over time.
9) The operation and maintenance manual indicated that the cartridge filters
should only be used when the raw water turbidity is below 1 NTU. The raw water
turbidity is not measured, as the only measured turbidity is the feed water
turbidity after the cartridge filters. Therefore the raw water turbidity before
cartridge filters need to be measured for the protection of cartridges.