Project Overview
Brackish water and saline wastewater recovery through Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems is limited to approximately 75% due to the concentration of fouling salts within the RO system as freshwater is removed. The more fresh water is removed from brackish and saline waters, the higher the concentration of soluble salts becomes and eventually the salts precipitate on the membrane surface and act to foul the membrane.
This project will develop and trial a four stage RO system with inter-stage crystallisation to increase water recovery and reduce the volume of brine for disposal. The water recovery using this technique can potentially increase from 75% to 95% and reduce the volume of brine discharged by 80%.
The technique will be trialled treating waste water at Donald in Western Victoria.
Results from this trial will provide for further development in the treatment of wastewater and saline water stream and will be disseminated to the water industry and other key stakeholders.
