Method and device for testing the effectiveness of magnetic treatment of feed water for reducing mineral scaling in reverse osmosis processes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10648957-B2
Application number	US-201715851776-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2017
Priority date	Dec 22, 2016
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

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.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. 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.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feed characteristic is selected from a group consisting of electrical conductivity, turbidity, and concentrations of ions of sparingly soluble salts.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of polarized microscopy with image processing software, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to characterize the scale formed on the RO membrane.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the evaluation is completed within a period of between about 10 minutes and 30 minutes.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the feed characteristic is selected from a group consisting of electrical conductivity, turbidity, and concentrations of ions of sparingly soluble salts.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein at least one of polarized microscopy with image processing software, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to characterize the scale formed on the RO membrane.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the evaluation is completed within a period of between about 10 minutes and 30 minutes.

10. 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.

Assignees

• New Jersey Inst Technology
• Government Of The Us U S Department Of Interior The Bureau Of Reclamation
• Government Of The United States Of America The Bureau Of Reclamation

Inventors

• Khusid Boris
• Guerra Katherine L
• Leitz Frank
• Shen Yueyang
• Elele Ezinwa O
• Lei Qian

Classifications

• C02F2209/11

  Turbidity · CPC title

• G01N33/18

  Water · CPC title

• C02F1/008

  Control or steering systems not provided for elsewhere in subclass C02F · CPC title

• B01D2311/2642

  Aggregation, sedimentation, flocculation, precipitation or coagulation · CPC title

• B01D2311/04

  Specific process operations in the feed stream; Feed pretreatment · CPC title