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The paper presents the latest developments and field experiences made with the large area, high rejection FILMTEC SW30HR-380 and SW30HR-320 membrane elements and focuses on technical-economical considerations with special emphasis on energy consumption and possible operational savings. Fouling incidence and latest developments on technical remediation, particularly in relation to the large spacer SW30HR-320 new membrane elements for open intakes are reviewed as well.

The new products FILMTEC SW30HR-380 and SW30HR-320 elements with excellent records of performance, demonstrated globally for the first type and in several plants for the second type, covering mainly operations under severe fouling conditions like most of the sea water reverse osmosis plants taking the raw water from the open sea surface, are able to operate with remarkable savings in the order of 20% for the installation costs and up to 25% for energy consumption and up to 4% for cleaning costs including plant down time costs in the case of the FILMTEC SW30HR-320 operating on waters with high fouling potentials. In this form, the new FILMTEC products described make possible the economic use of RO membranes in larger water purification applications previously not considered economically viable. Other than this, the new membrane elements have excellent specification characteristics, which are even bettered in practice. With this, they become an excellent choice for numerous new applications and plant retrofits.