A twelve-year history of large scale application of workexchanger energy recovery technology

This paper traces the history of large-scale work-exchanger energy recovery systems from early concepts; the first seawater reverse osmosis application in 1975; through the present state of the art. Work-exchanger technology, while fairly simple in concept, has undergone a tremendous amount of evolutionary development to bring it to the commercial stage as currently applied to seawater reverse osmosis. Twelve years of continuous in-plant use is described.

The authors believe that, in the near future, all large scale seawater RO units will utilize work-exchanger technology, due to its inherent efficiency. RO units with a capacity of over 20,000 m³/d can now realistically be achieved [25]. The use of work-exchangers on large scale plants now has a proven track record, with a significant number of plants in operation for many years.