Method and device for testing the effectiveness of magnetic treatment of feed water for reducing mineral scaling in reverse osmosis processes
AssigneesGovernment of the United States of America, The Bureau of Reclamation, New Jersey Institute of Technology
InventorsBoris Khusid, Katherine L. Guerra, Frank Leitz, Yueyang Shen, Ezinwa O. Elele, Qian Lei
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A benchtop device flow setup for determining the effectiveness of magnetic treatment of feed water for reducing mineral scaling includes two similar branches, both equipped with a reverse osmosis membrane and a pump that operate in the transient regime at the same flow rate and transmembrane pressure. The flow setup is further fed with a solution at the same level of supersaturation measured in a stirred reactor, however, only one branch exposes the feed to a magnetic field.
Claims10
A method for benchtop evaluation of effectiveness of a water treatment modality, comprising:
- a. providing a benchtop reverse osmosis (RO) system including RO membranes that operate in a transient regime of crossflow filtration for treated and untreated feed water,
- b. measuring kinetics of precipitation of a supersaturated solution in a stirred reactor based on at least one feed characteristic;
- and
- c. characterizing the solution supersaturation based on the at least one solution characteristic during a certain period of time and a total relative change of the characteristic at a beginning and an end of the precipitation process;
- wherein flow through the RO system is a single-pass flow, and
- wherein the testing is performed using a flow setup that includes two similar branches, both equipped with an RO membrane and a pump that are operating in the transient regime at the same flow rate and transmembrane pressure and fed with a solution at the same level of supersaturation measured in the stirred reactor, wherein only one branch exposes the feed to a magnetic field.
A method for benchtop evaluation of effectiveness of a water treatment modality, comprising:
- a. providing a benchtop reverse osmosis (RO) system including RO membranes that operate in a transient regime of crossflow filtration for treated and untreated feed water,
- b. measuring kinetics of precipitation of a supersaturated solution in a stirred reactor based on at least one feed characteristic;
- and
- c. characterizing the solution supersaturation in the benchtop reverse osmosis (RO) system based on the at least one solution characteristic during a certain period of time and a total relative change of the characteristic at a beginning and an end of the precipitation process;
- wherein flow through the RO system is a single-pass flow, and
- wherein the characterizing step includes characterization of solution supersaturation based at least in part on a parameter ξ(t) that is calculated as the ratio between a change in one of said feed characteristics during a period of time t and the total change so that ξ=0 and ξ=1 are at the beginning and the end of the precipitation process, respectively.
An apparatus for evaluating effectiveness of a water treatment modality, comprising:
- a. a benchtop reverse osmosis (RO) system that includes RO membranes that operate in a transient regime of crossflow filtration for treated and untreated feed water, wherein flow through the RO system is a single-pass flow;
- b. means associated with the benchtop RO system for measuring kinetics of precipitation of a supersaturated solution in a stirred reactor based on at least one feed characteristic;
- and
- c. means associated with the benchtop RO system for characterizing the solution supersaturation based on the at least one solution characteristic during a certain period of time and a total relative change of the characteristic at a beginning and an end of the precipitation process;
- wherein the testing is performed using a flow setup that includes two similar branches, both equipped with an RO membrane and a pump that are operating in the transient regime at the same flow rate and transmembrane pressure and fed with a solution at the same level of supersaturation measured in the stirred reactor, wherein only one branch exposes the feed to a magnetic field.
An apparatus for evaluating effectiveness of a water treatment modality, comprising:
- a. a benchtop reverse osmosis (RO) system that includes RO membranes that operate in a transient regime of crossflow filtration for treated and untreated feed water, wherein flow through the RO system is a single-pass flow;
- b. means associated with the benchtop RO system for measuring kinetics of precipitation of a supersaturated solution in a stirred reactor based on at least one feed characteristic;
- and
- c. means associated with the benchtop RO system for characterizing the solution supersaturation based on the at least one solution characteristic during a certain period of time and a total relative change of the characteristic at a beginning and an end of the precipitation process;
- wherein the characterizing step includes characterization of solution supersaturation based at least in part on a parameter ξ(t) that is calculated as the ratio between a change in one of said feed characteristics during a period of time t and the total change so that ξ=0 and ξ=1 are at the beginning and the end of the precipitation process, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.