Development of a package model for process simulation and cost estimation of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant

Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination is rising as an alternative solution for the water shortage problem which is more severe than before. In this study, a package of process models was developed and tested by four-year SWRO plant operation data obtained from Fujairah in UAE, as a tool not only for simulating the performance of SWRO desalination process but for estimating the total profits of the plant operation. The simulation results based on the developed process models were reasonably satisfied to predict the SWRO desalination plant performance in terms of permeate water concentration and flow rate. And the results of cost estimation show a possibility that the models can successfully predict total annual profits (TAP) within the order of magnitude of USD/year, according to operating date, feed water concentration, and permeate water condition. Consequently, the developed package model is applicable to support design criteria and efficient operation of SWRO desalination plant as references.

Simulations of SWRO process performance and TAP estimations for SWRO desalination plant have been studied in this research. Model verification was carried out using four-year plant operation data obtained from Fujairah. The simulation results based on the developed process models were reasonably satisfied to predict the SWRO desalination plant performance (see Table 3 and Fig. 3(a) and (b)) in terms of permeate water flow rate and concentration. And the results of cost estimation show a possibility that the models can successfully predict TAP within the order of magnitude of USD/ year, according to operating date, feed water TDS, and permeate water TDS as shown in Fig. 4(a), (b), and (c), respectively. Each data shows that the TAP decrease with the operating time, decrease as feed water concentration increases, and increase as permeate water concentration increases. It implies that the equipment and the configuration of SWRO desalination process are highly dependent on the variation of feed and permeate water qualities. In conclusion, the developed model package for process simulation and cost estimation is reasonably applicable to support design criteria and to suggest an efficient O&M protocol of SWRO desalination plant.