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Industrial Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis Systems

Desalitech’s Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis (CCRO) technology combines principles of simple filtration and the cross flow of traditional reverse osmosis resulting in a superior reverse osmosis performance.

Desalitech’s Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis process is an elegant way of operating crossflow reverse osmosis membranes in a highly efficient and flexible simple filtration device. Like any simple filtration device, Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis systems feature equal feed and permeate flow rates during normal operation mode. At a software based set point, the system automatically flushes out all the concentrate, and then returns to its normal operation mode. The flush is triggered by the Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis operating software, based on any combination of flow, concentration, pressure and additional set points. During the concentrate flush step, the system continues to be fed and to generate permeate, while concentrate is pushed out of the system in one sweep.

Crossflow for standard reverse osmosis membranes is attained with a single stage of parallel membrane housings and a low pressure circulation pump that generates optimal cross flow conditions. Concentrate is recirculated to the membrane feed and recovery increases with each concentration cycle. Recovery is achieved in time with recirculation and not in space with multiple membrane stages in series.

This innovative reverse osmosis technology features a step change in reliability, flexibility and efficiency over traditional reverse osmosis.

The diagram to the right illustrates the Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis process.

In contrast, review how traditional reverse osmosis and simple filtration work below.

Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis

how_it_works

Traditional Reverse Osmosis

how_it_works

Reverse osmosis membranes require high crossflow, a continuous flow parallel to the external surface of the membranes, which prevents the accumulation of rejected salts by sweeping them away. Since only a small portion of the water flow is purified and most of it is sweeping the membranes, the water efficiency, or recovery, of each individual membrane is very low.

Traditional reverse osmosis is designed in a sequential multi-membrane, multi-stage configuration, in which each membrane in the series is making a small contribution towards the overall water recovery.

Balancing the crossflow and flux (of permeate) across multiple membranes and stages, is not trivial, often becoming impossible as the number of stages increase or as water conditions vary. The challenge is to drive sufficient crossflow to the tail membranes without fouling the head membranes by exceeding their flow and flux limitation.

Every stage, which is comprised of multiple sequential membranes, can only achieve 50% recovery. It takes 2 stages to achieve 75% recovery, but despite of the considerable 25% waste, this is the standard configuration of most industrial and municipal reverse osmosis systems. Adding stages can increase recovery, but it increases system and operational complexity, greatly reduces flexibility and increases risk of failure.

A stream of pressurized concentrate is constantly discharged from the tail membranes, wasting water and energy, and exposing those membranes to permanent high concentration conditions that causes scaling when saturation limits are approached.

how_it_works

Simple Filtration

Simple or dead-end filtration is the most common and efficient filtration technique. Water is driven through the filter leaving only the dirt behind, with equal feed and permeate flow rates during normal operation mode, and with periodic filter flushes or replacements. Exceedingly high recoveries can be achieved as water is only wasted during the flushes.

This efficient and flexible technique could not be applied to reverse osmosis due to the lack of crossflow which is essential for the operation of reverse osmosis membranes.

The Benefits of Desalitech

1Ultimate Recovery

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2Reduced Energy Consumption

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3Resilience and Reliability

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4Unlimited Flexibility and Adaptiveness

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5Standard, Certified Components

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6Trusted Source

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© 2019 Desalitech – All Rights Reserved

Advantages

Ultimate Recovery –

Desalitech is removing the mechanical recovery limitation of traditional RO, while extending its chemistry
induced limitations.

With ReFlex systems, recovery is determined by the frequency of the purge steps that are controlled by the operating software, and not by the mechanical design and the number of stages like in a traditional reverse osmosis system. Enter 98% recovery in the control panel, and the system will initiate a purge only when 98% recovery could be achieved.

Desalitech systems can extend recovery beyond the chemistry limitation of traditional reverse osmosis by exposing the tail membranes to the maximum concentration only for short intervals rather than permanently like traditional reverse osmosis.


Reduced Energy Consumption – Unlike traditional reverse osmosis systems that operate at constant high pressure, Desalitech systems start each batch at a low pressure which is gradually increased during the batch as concentration in the systems builds up. This leads to an average pressure which is lower than the constant pressure of traditional reverse osmosis. During the purge, the concentrate is discharged at the minimum pressure, rather than at maximum pressure like in traditional reverse osmosis process.

The combination of these factors typically results in a 20% to 35% reduction of energy consumption.


Resilience and Reliability – Desalitech systems are built with single stage short membrane arrays which allows for optimal flux distribution, a higher and more precisely controlled cross flow, and concentration variations that disrupt both scaling and organic fouling growth in the system.

Desalitech’s process resilience to fouling and scaling, greatly improving operational reliability.


Unlimited Flexibility and Adaptivness – Recovery, cross flow and flux are all interconnected in traditional reverse osmosis, but completely independent in Desalitech systems. In addition, they are all fully controlled and optimized by Desalitech’s operating software in real time. The same system can deal with completely different water treatment applications and behave completely differently for each – it can treat city water in the morning, reuse waste streams in the afternoon, and act as a second pass ultrapure system in the evening.

Desalitech systems fully adapt themselves to changing conditions in order to keep delivering maximum performance and maximum reliability.


Standard, Certified Components – Desalitech systems utilize standard high quality reverse osmosis membranes and components, with the full warranty and performance guarantee of leading vendors such as Dow, Hydranautics, Grundfos and Allen Bradley. There is no specialty or noncompliant equipment or components to a Desalitech system, and the system can be operated and maintained either by your team, your existing service providers, or by Desalitech.


Trusted Source – Desalitech is the only trusted source for Closed Circuit Desalination or ReFlex reverse osmosis. Desalitech systems are covered by patents in dozens of countries around the world, and cannot be legally offered by anyone but Desalitech and its official partners.

If you would like to verify that your supplier is an official partner of Desalitech, please contact us at info@desalitech.com or call +1-617-564-1647

Liberation Capital

Liberation Capital is a Global Private Equity Fund specializing in project finance for distributed renewable energy, water and wastewater projects. Liberation Capital supports modular, repeatable, decentralized projects like those served by Desalitech. Its investment model centers on strategic partnerships with CleanTech technology firms and project developers with multi-project/multi-year investment horizons. www.liberationcapital.com

SPRING CREEK

Spring Creek Investment Management, LLC is a Philadelphia-based family office with a broad range of investments including clean water technology.

AQUA AGRO

AquAgro Fund is a venture capital fund formed to focus primarily on Israel’s innovative water and agriculture technologies, as well as other clean technologies. The Fund aims to realize substantial capital appreciation through private equity and equity-related investments in high-potential Israeli and Israeli-related early-stage to late-stage companies.
www.aquagrofund.com

Trusted Source

Desalitech is the only trusted source for Closed Circuit Desalination or ReFlex reverse osmosis. Desalitech systems are covered by patents in dozens of countries around the world, and cannot be legally offered by anyone but Desalitech and its official partners.

If you would like to verify that your supplier is an official partner of Desalitech, please contact us at info@desalitech.com or call +1-617-564-1647.

Standard, Certified Components

Desalitech systems utilize standard high quality reverse osmosis membranes and components, with the full warranty and performance guarantee of leading vendors such as Dow, Hydranautics, Grundfos and Allen Bradley. There is no specialty or noncompliant equipment or components to a Desalitech system, and the system can be operated and maintained either by your team, your existing service providers, or by Desalitech.

Unlimited Flexibility and Adaptivity

Recovery, cross flow and flux are all interconnected in traditional reverse osmosis, but completely independent in Desalitech systems. In addition, they are all fully controlled and optimized by Desalitech’s operating software in real time. The same system can deal with completely different water treatment applications and behave completely differently for each – it can treat city water in the morning, reuse waste streams in the afternoon, and act as a second pass ultrapure system in the evening.

Desalitech systems fully adapt themselves to changing conditions in order to keep delivering maximum performance and maximum reliability.

Resilience and Reliability

Desalitech systems are built with single stage short membrane arrays which allows for optimal flux distribution, a higher and more precisely controlled cross flow, and concentration variations that disrupt both scaling and organic fouling growth in the system.

Desalitech’s process resilience to fouling and scaling, greatly improving operational reliability.

Reduced Energy Consumption

Unlike traditional reverse osmosis systems that operate at constant high pressure, Desalitech systems start each batch at a low pressure which is gradually increased during the batch as concentration in the systems builds up. This leads to an average pressure which is lower than the constant pressure of traditional reverse osmosis. During the purge, the concentrate is discharged at the minimum pressure, rather than at maximum pressure like in traditional reverse osmosis process.

The combination of these factors typically results in a 20% to 35% reduction of energy consumption.

 

Ultimate Recovery

Desalitech is removing the mechanical recovery limitation of traditional RO, while extending its chemistry induced limitations.

With ReFlex systems, recovery is determined by the frequency of the purge steps that are controlled by the operating software, and not by the mechanical design and the number of stages like in a traditional reverse osmosis system. Enter 98% recovery in the control panel, and the system will initiate a purge only when 98% recovery could be achieved.

Desalitech systems can extend recovery beyond the chemistry limitation of traditional reverse osmosis by exposing the tail membranes to the maximum concentration only for short intervals rather than permanently like traditional reverse osmosis.