Impact of chosen antiscalant on the operating costs value for reverse osmosis systems

Introduction. The choice of an effective antiscalant is an issue that all industrial enterprises have to face, as the operating costs value depends on it. Therefore, enterprises require experimental-industrial or at least laboratory tests before ordering a particular antiscalant. The process of selecting reagents for the maintenance of reverse osmosis systems by industrial enterprises is accompanied by the evaluation of all significant factors, from the inhibition efficiency to the product price. However, the analysis of scientific and technical literature shows that only the inhibition efficiency is taken into account when evaluating antiscalants, while the effect of sediment on the operating pressure, permeate quality and performance reduction are ignored. The tests should be carried out under actual operating conditions or be as close to them as possible. Therefore, in order to determine effective dosages, it is necessary to conduct laboratory tests on “actual” water while taking into account the actual recovery rate. This article presents the results of comparison of inhibitory property of two antiscalants, carried out on “actual” water from an industrial enterprise. An estimation of the effect of antiscalant choice on the operating costs value was carried out. The dependences of Са2+ content and antiscalant adsorption on its dose are obtained. Over the course of experiments, effective dosages of antiscalants were determined. Materials and methods. The following antiscalants were used as part of this research: “AminatТМK” (NPF “Travers”, LLC, Russia), Jurbysoft M422 (Jurbywatertech, Lithuania). The research was conducted using industrial roll filters (model RE 1812-80 CSM, R-80G) (CSM, Korea). Results. Experimentally determined dependences of Ca2+ content on the filtrate output value of reverse osmosis systems at different antiscalant doses of 2, 4 and 6 mg/l were obtained. It was shown that during water treatment with antiscalant the latter is adsorbed on the crystal surface, and the higher the antiscalant dose, the more of it is adsorbed. Conclusions. It was shown that at the same dosage the antiscalant “AminatТМK” is more effective at preventing sedimentation of calcium carbonate during the operation of membrane units. Acknowledgments. The authors would like to express gratitude to the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research as part of the scientific project No. 19-38-90078.