Apparatus, system and method for integrated filtration and reverse osmosis desalination

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9790113-B2
Application number	US-201113822622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2011
Priority date	Sep 14, 2010
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

An apparatus includes a filtration skid configured to generate a filtrate through at least one of microfiltration and ultrafiltration. The apparatus further includes a desalination skid fluidly connected to the filtration skid. The desalination skid is configured to perform reverse osmosis desalination on the filtrate to generate a permeate, where the filtrate travels from the filtration skid to the desalination skid without traversing a storage tank. In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a controller, where the filtration skid and the desalination skid are integrated to provide self-adaptive operation of the filtration skid and the desalination skid in response to control by at least one of a supervisory controller and a local controller. In one embodiment, the control responds to at least one of temporal variability of feed water quality, a permeate production capacity target, and a permeate quality target.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a filtration skid configured to generate a filtrate through at least one of microfiltration or ultrafiltration of feed water;
a desalination skid fluidly connected to the filtration skid, the desalination skid configured to perform reverse osmosis desalination on the filtrate to generate a permeate and a concentrate, wherein the filtrate travels from the filtration skid to the desalination skid without traversing a storage tank; and
a controller configured to direct operation of the filtration skid and the desalination skid, wherein in a mode of operation, the filtration skid is configured to receive an output from the desalination skid such that the output backwashes the filtration skid, wherein the output includes the concentrate, at least one of a frequency or a duration of backwashing of the filtration skid is determined by the controller based on a membrane permeability of the filtration skid.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the filtration skid and the desalination skid are integrated to provide self-adaptive operation of the filtration skid and the desalination skid in response to control by the controller.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the control responds to at least one of temporal variability of feed water quality, a permeate production capacity target, or a permeate quality target.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a pump connected between the filtration skid and the desalination skid, and wherein the filtrate maintains a pressure at or above a minimum pressure specified for the pump.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the filtration skid includes a plurality of filtration modules located on a first frame; and
the filtration skid includes at least one valve, at least one pump, and at least one sensor located on a second frame;
wherein the first frame is detachable from the second frame.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the desalination skid includes a reverse osmosis pressure vessel and a pump located on a first frame, wherein the pump is configured to increase pressure of the filtrate provided to the reverse osmosis pressure vessel; and
the desalination skid includes at least one valve and a variable frequency drive of the pump located on a second frame;
wherein the first frame is detachable from the second frame.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a footprint of the apparatus is less than 350 cubic feet.

8. An apparatus comprising:
a filtration device including a filtration module, the filtration device being configured to generate a filtrate from an input through at least one of microfiltration or ultrafiltration; and
a desalination device fluidly connected to the filtration device, the desalination device configured to perform reverse osmosis desalination on the filtrate to generate a permeate stream and a concentrate stream, wherein the filtrate travels from the filtration device to the desalination device without traversing a storage tank;
wherein in a first mode of operation, the filtration module performs filtration as part of generating the filtrate;
wherein in a second mode of operation, the filtration module is configured to receive an output from the desalination device such that the output backwashes the filtration module, wherein the output includes the concentrate stream; and
wherein:
the filtration device includes a plurality of filtration modules including the filtration module;
each of the plurality of filtration modules is independently configurable into the first mode of operation or the second mode of operation such that when a subset of the plurality of filtration modules are in the second mode of operation, the filtration device produces the filtrate using a remaining subset of the plurality of filtration modules in the first mode of operation.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the desalination device generates the permeate stream and the concentrate stream while the output backwashes the filtration module.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the output travels from the desalination device to the plurality of filtration modules without traversing a storage tank.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the output does not include any of the permeate stream.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a controller, wherein:
at least one of a frequency or a duration of backwashing of one or more of the plurality of filtration modules is determined by the controller based on a membrane permeability of the corresponding one of the plurality of filtration modules.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the controller is configured to increase at least one of the frequency or the duration of the backwashing of the one or more of the plurality of filtration modules based on a comparison of the membrane permeability of the one or more of the plurality of filtration modules to a permeability threshold.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the controller is configured to increase at least one of the frequency or the duration of the backwashing of the one or more of the plurality of filtration modules based on a history of permeability restoration to the one or more of the plurality of filtration modules based on previous backwashing of the one or more of the plurality of filtration modules.

15. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the filtration device further comprises at least one accumulator;
in a third mode of operation, the filtration module is configured to be flushed by the input;
in a fourth mode of operation, the filtration module is configured to be backwashed by a pulsed output of the accumulator, wherein the pulsed output includes the concentrate stream.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , further comprising a controller, wherein the controller is configured to determine a sequence in which the filtration module enters at least two of the second mode of operation, the third mode of operation, and the fourth mode of operation.

17. An apparatus comprising:
a filtration device configured to generate a filtrate from an input through at least one of microfiltration or ultrafiltration; and
a desalination device fluidly connected to the filtration device, the desalination device configured to perform reverse osmosis desalination on the filtrate to produce a retentate and a permeate;
a pump fluidly connected to the filtration device and the desalination device such that the filtrate traverses the pump before being provided to the desalination device; and
a controller configured to adjust a variable frequency drive setting of the pump based on a feed flow rate at an input to the desalination device,
wherein the filtrate travels from the filtration device to the desalination device without traversing a storage tank.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the controller is a second controller, and further comprising a first controller configured to adjust a flow rate and a pressure at the input to the filtration device based on a value of a pressure of the filtrate at an inlet of the pump.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the feed flow rate at the input to the desalination device is determined such that:
a production rate of the permeate by the desalination device is greater than or equal to a configurable threshold; and
an energy consumption of the desalination device and the pump is minimized.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 , further comprising:
a valve fluidly connected to the desalination device and configured to allow retentate from the desalin

Assignees

• Cohen Yoram
• Christofides Panagiotis D
• Rahardianto Anditya
• Bartman Alex R
• Zhu Aihua
• Gu Han
• Gao Larry Xingming
• Univ California

Inventors

• Cohen Yoram
• Christofides Panagiotis D
• Rahardianto Anditya
• Bartman Alex R
• Zhu Aihua
• Gu Han
• Gao Larry Xingming

Classifications

• B01D2311/24

  Quality control · CPC title

• B01D2321/10

  Use of feed · CPC title

• B01D61/22

  Controlling or regulating · CPC title

• B01D2311/16

  Flow or flux control · CPC title

• C02F2201/007

  Modular design · CPC title