Analyze and Optimization of Reverse Osmosis Desalination System in Khenifra

Abstract

The following study aims to analyze and to optimize the technical performances of a desalination plant, based in khénifra city in the central region of Morocco. Reverse osmosis system is used as a desalination process in order to treat the water of the river Oum ErRiaa. The river water quality is variable depending on the season, and its chloride content does not exceed the value of 866 mg/l, which represents the design reference of the reverse osmosis plant. Faced with the decrease of the salinity of this water, the operator was forced to reduce to the third, the operation of this plant, which is composed of three reverse osmosis units functioning every two days alternatively. Moreover, the monitoring of the technical indicators of the plant, revealed the absence of membranes fouling. This is due to frequent membranes rinsing during the units stops. As a result, the plant performances as defined during the design cannot be verified. It was then important to identify other approaches to analyze the performances of this station. The questioning of desalination plant design, led us to make simulations with two different softwares, on a new basis, which is the current quality of the river water, characterized by a conductivity value of only 1230 μs/cm instead of 3013 μS/cm, which was the one taken to design the plant. The results obtained indicated the possibility of reaching a better conversion rate of around 88% for low mineralized waters compared to 78% for the quality of water taken into account for the desalination plant design.