DISEÑO DE UNA INSTALACIÓN DE DESALACIÓN DE AGUA DE MAR MEDIANTE ÓSMOSIS INVERSA EQUIPADA CON UN MANTENIMIENTO PREVENTIVO ESPECÍFICO

Abstract

The reduction of the quality water of natural resources for consumption due to either overexploitation or pollution, coupled with a growing demand, forces people in many areas of our planet to look for alternative processes for drinking water production. Seawater desalination plants using reverse osmosis membranes have shown to be a suitable solution to ensure quality water supply. Currently, a decrease of its high operating costs should be reached in order to make this water treatment more affordable. The key to minimize costs related to the process is to improve design of installation and maintenance. In this work, a design of seawater desalination plant is shown, which includes the design of a membrane cleaning installation that allow to carry out an specific preventive maintenance. Designed system allows to increase membranes lifetime by means of the application of a specific cleaning procedure, attending to the fouling phenomenon observed. Consequently, membranes replacement costs will decrease and installation performance will improve in terms of exploitation costs.