Study of Energy Recovery Method Using Pressure Exchanger Device for Various Capacities Reverse Osmosis Plants

Abstract

Water is required to produce energy, and energy is required to produce potable water by reverse osmosis process. An RO water desalination system consists of the pretreatment section, the desalination section, and the post treatment section. In the new design of plants, different energy recovery methods are adopted to reduce the energy consumption of desalination section. Among the various energy recovery systems, the pressure exchanger system is used to reduce energy consumption up to 30 to 35% and also regarding a high pressure pumps size and scale up of the system. Secondary effect of the use of the PX (pressure exchanger device) is, increasing of feed salinity due to the mixing of the concentrated water coming from RO section with the portion of feed water passing through the PX device, on the contact layer between the two streams. In this paper, we are mainly focused on working, application and use of energy recovery device like pressure exchanger for various capacities reverse osmosis plants.