Common Fault Analysis of Reverse Osmosis Equipment

There are three main types of faults in reverse osmosis equipment: reduced permeability, increased salt permeability (decreased desalination rate), and increased pressure drop. However, there are many reasons for these faults, and efforts should be made to identify the essence of the problem from these faults and implement maintenance and repair measures as soon as possible.

A common problem in reverse osmosis equipment is the decrease in desalination rate and the reduction in product water volume. If either or both slow down, it may be a common phenomenon of dirt or scale formation, which can be solved by appropriate cleaning; And sudden or rapid performance decline indicates that there is a problem with the processing system. A problem has occurred and needs to be resolved as soon as possible. Delay may result in the reverse osmosis membrane being unable to restore its original performance. The prerequisite for discovering problems in a timely manner is to keep corresponding records. When the desalination rate and water production of the system decrease, the instrument should be calibrated first to avoid misjudgment due to instrument reasons. These instruments include conductivity meters, flow meters, pressure gauges, temperature gauges, etc. Secondly, it is necessary to standardize the recorded operational data. Changes in temperature, influent TDS, recovery rate, service life, and water flux can cause variations in desalination rate and water production. By calculating the standardized water production and desalination rate, and comparing them with the initial operating data, confirm whether the system has any faults. During long-term operation of reverse osmosis devices, various pollutants such as colloids, microorganisms, inorganic scale, metal oxides, etc. will gradually accumulate on the membrane surface. These substances deposited on the membrane surface can cause a decrease in the performance of the reverse osmosis device. In order to restore the performance of the membrane, chemical cleaning of the membrane is required.