Seawater Reverse Osmosis Systems (SWRO)

Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Systems are used for obtaining high quality utility water by passing seawater with high salinity through a semipermeable membrane under high pressure. As per the operating principle of Reverse Osmosis membranes, a portion of the water is purified and obtained as a product water, called “permeate,” while the remaining part is removed from the system through the drain line as waste (concentrate).

Due to the high salinity (conductivity) of seawater, all units and accessories that make up the Seawater Reverse Osmosis System (SWRO) are selected according to the use of seawater and high operating pressure. In SWRO systems above a certain capacity, energy recovery systems are used for recovering the energy in the waste line and thus reducing the operation costs.

The “autoflushing system” is used, as keeping highly conductive water between membranes while the SWRO device is not running may lead to clogging of the membranes and hence deterioration of the device capacity. This way, some purified product water is kept inside the device when the device is not running, so that the membrane is protected from any damage.

Depending on the quality of raw water to be fed into the Seawater Reverse Osmosis System (SWRO), a Pretreatment System and a Chemical Dosing System with appropriate capacity and properties are added at the inlet of the device.