Modeling of membrane solute mass transfer in NF/RO membrane systems

Five articles describing the impact of surface characteristics, and development of mass transfer models for diffusion controlled membrane applications are published in this dissertation.; Article 1 (Chapter 3) describes the impact of membrane surface characteristics and NOM on membrane performance for varying pretreatment and membranes during a field study. Surface charge, hydrophobicity and roughness varied significantly among the four membranes used in the study. Membrane surface characteristics, NOM and SUVA measurements were used to describe mass transfer in a low pressure RO integrated membrane system.; Article 2 (Chapter 4) describes the development of a diffusion controlled solute mass transfer model to assess membrane performance over time. The changing mass transfer characteristics of four low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) membranes was correlated to feed stream water quality in a 2000 hour pilot study. Solute mass transfer coefficients (MTCs) were correlated to initial solute MTCs, solute charge, feed water temperature, monochloramine loading and organic loading (UV254).; Article 3 (Chapter 5) describes a comparison of the long standing method of assessing membrane performance (ASTM D 4516) and another approach using mass transfer coefficients (MTCs) from the homogenous solution diffusion model (HSDM) using a common data set, water productivity and standardized salt passage. Both methods were shown to provide identical assessments of water productivity, however different assessments of salt passage. ASTM D 4516 salt passage is normalized for pressure and concentration and does not show the effects of flux, recovery, temperature or specific foulants on salt passage. However the MTC HSDM method is shown to consider all those effects and can be easily used to predict membrane performance at different sites and times of operation, whereas ASTM D 45160 can not.; Article 4 (Chapter 6) describes the development of a fully integrated membrane mass transfer model that considers concentration, recovery and osmotic pressure for prediction of permeate water quality and required feed stream pressures. Osmotic pressure is incorporated into the model using correction coefficients that are calculated from boundary conditions determined from stream osmotic pressures of the feed and concentrate streams. Comparison to homogenous solution diffusion model (HSDM) with and without consideration of osmotic pressure and verification of IOPM using independently developed data from full and pilot scale plants is presented.; Article 5 (Chapter 7) describes the development and comparison of a modified solution diffusion model and two newly developed artificial neural network models to existing mechanistic or empirical models that predict finished water quality for diffusion controlled membranes, which are generally restricted to specific solute MTCs that are site and stage specific. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...