Five misconceptions of RO membranes

Misconception 1: membrane water treatment equipment is a difficult operating system

       In fact, the membrane water treatment system operation is highly automated, start-stop, dosing and online flushing operations are controlled by the PLC system, completely unattended, only need to manually inspect the dosing regularly, periodic maintenance and cleaning, basically no additional operating staff. Routine cleaning and maintenance of RO membranes can be mastered in one day of training, which is much less difficult than biochemical systems that require higher comprehensive skills of employees.

Misconception 2: Large investment, RO membrane is a consumable product, one-time investment and depreciation and replacement costs are very high, can afford to buy but can not afford to use.

       In fact, with the development of domestic RO membrane manufacturing enterprises, the price of reverse osmosis membrane is decreasing. Adopting MBR reverse osmosis membrane system can save the cost of civil construction and land occupation, reduce the amount of sludge and sludge disposal cost, and have high comprehensive cost performance. For UF and RO systems, the economic benefits generated after realizing the recycling of sewage resources far exceed the investment in the equipment itself.

Misconception 3: RO membrane is delicate and easy to damage

       Some engineering companies due to inexperience, design and construction of reverse osmosis membrane system reverse osmosis membrane broken wire, membrane scrap and other problems, users mistakenly believe that reverse osmosis membrane products are difficult to maintain.

       In fact, the main problem comes from two aspects: process design and reverse osmosis membrane itself. Through reasonable pre-treatment design and safety protection design, high quality reinforced PVDF lined reverse osmosis membrane can be used for more than 5 years, and the replacement cycle of RO reverse osmosis membrane is more than 3 years.

Misconception 4: Brand and RO quantity are more important than RO membrane area and system design

When purchasing membrane systems, some companies pay excessive attention to whether the reverse osmosis membranes are imported products and do not recognize the importance of system design.

       In fact, the performance of some domestic ultra-microfiltration reverse osmosis membranes has approached or even reached the international advanced level, and the cost performance exceeds that of imported reverse osmosis membranes, and reverse osmosis membrane system failure problems are more from the engineering design.

Misconception 5: RO membrane technology is a panacea

       In fact, membrane technology is a unit treatment technology, which has the characteristics of low turbidity, decolorization, desalination and softening of water. In terms of industrial wastewater treatment, membrane technology usually needs to be combined with traditional physical and biochemical treatment processes in order to better utilize the advantages of membrane depth treatment. Moreover, membrane water treatment usually has the problem of concentrated water discharge, which has its own need to support other technologies and is not a panacea.