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3. DIAGNOSTICS OF MEMBRANE FOULING AND SCALING
FIGURE 3.4
Accumulation of biofilm on membrane brine spacer.
Accumulation of scale on the membrane brine spacer.
3.3 TYPICAL DIAGNOSTICS PROCEDURES
FIGURE 3.5
As indicated previously, many of the same RO-system performance problems (e.g., reduced production flow, deteriorated permeate water quality, and unstable system performance) could be caused by both the loss of membrane integrity and/or biofouling. In addition, biofouling itself could be a cause for membrane integrity loss as well. Therefore, most often membrane fouling and membrane integrity are investigated at the same time.
RO-membrane integrity and fouling are diagnosed by first, completing sample collection from malfunctioning membrane vessels, and by inspecting the front and back (tail) elements of these vessels. Visual inspection is completed in parallel with performance data analysis of
