The impact of R&D on new technologies, novel design concepts and advanced operating procedures on the cost of water desalination

In the early 1970s, Mekorot was among the first to investigate and actually implement the RO process as an alternative to the much higher energy-intensive and more expensive thermal processes. Mekorot, assisted by Israeli universities and in cooperation with leading membrane manufacturers and other equipment suppliers, made extensive research efforts to stretch, as far as possible, existing and developing RO technologies to improve performance regarding reliability and cost. This was accomplished by comprehensive pilot testing of all major RO membranes and appropriate antiscalants. More recently, new developments such as integrated membrane systems (IMS) have been investigated in the framework of international research projects supported by the EU and MEDRC. In this paper the economic impact of R&D and ongoing research activities are discussed.

Fig. 7. Schematic description of Migdal 15. At 95% recovery — the highest achieved during the trials — massive silica precipitation occurred all along the nine membrane elements and not only by the outlet of the system. The field experiments were accompanied by membrane autopsies performed in the laboratory at Ben-Gurion University in order to determine the silica distribution in the membrane deposits. 3.3.5. Shafdan BWRO pilot plant A new pilot scale plant will be erected adjacent to the Shafdan large waste water treatment plant. The main objective is to evaluate the NF/RO technology capability to treat municipal wastewater for unrestricted agriculture and industrial purposes. It is scheduled to conduct field testing with two integrated membrane systems. During the first year of research, an UF system, coupled with RO train, will be tested. Later on, a newly developed NF membrane will replace the UF train as RO pretreatment. Performance comparison between the new NF membrane and the currently used membranes such as UF will be performed. The experimental work will be concluded by a comparative performance study of the new membranes and an economic Based on the widely accepted fact that the RO process is sensitive to site-specific conditions, the interaction among the raw water feed, the pretreatment and the membrane system is of utmost importance. Therefore, prior to any desalination plant erection, intensive field tests are required for gathering the most reliable data for optimal plant design. Furthermore, even after the plant’s start-up, the role of the pilot plant does not end. Further tests and research by means of smallscale experiments are needed during the plant’s operation along the whole plant life to check any suggested performance improvement before its large-scale implementation. R&D of new technologies and advanced operating procedures performed by Mekorot in the last three decades had a very strong impact on improved reliability and on cost reduction of the desalinated water. Implementation of novel design concepts such as the hybrid SWRO/BWRO was also an outcome of the target oriented R&D, prior to its commercial application. Because of the limited brackish sources in Israel and their high shadow price — due to low cost vs. seawater desalination — major R&D efforts to increase product recovery are currently pursued. Desalination of other marginal sources, such as polluted surface water and wastewater imposing more difficult pretreatment problems, are currently put in the mainstream of Mekorot’s R&D efforts. Advanced pretreatment methods such as various micro- and ultrafiltration membranes, along with the projected MF and UF membranes cost decrease, also have a large cost reduction potential and are therefore in high priority in Mekorot’s ongoing R&D program.