Simulation and Optimisation of Reverse Osmosis Based Desalination Process

Potable water supply is becoming a limited resource now days due to the increase in size of the community. Desalination process to compensate the shortage in potable water is necessary. For many years multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) has been dominating for treating seawater to make freshwater. Since 1960 reverse osmosis (RO) was has become an attractive process due to its low energy consumption compared with other desalination processes like MSF process and also due to simplicity in automation and control.

In this research, a reliable mathematical model for RO desalination process will be developed. The complex interaction of the design and operation parameters of the RO process will be studied via simulation. Emphasis will be given to membrane fouling and frequency of membrane replacement. Finally, different operation and design parameters will be optimised while minimizing the total cost of the process using mathematical techniques.

Applications and expressions of interest are invited from prospective researchers with background in chemical engineering.