Evaluation the Performance of Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis under several Operating Conditions for the Establishment of Eco-Cities in the Maghra Region, Egypt
Abstract
Water scarcity is a global crisis that affects all the life aspects such as agriculture, food, and economical aspect. Egypt is one of the countries that expected to face a future water sacristy due to climate change and the increasing rate of population growth. The contemporary construction and urbanization industry is also considered one of the biggest reasons for the aggravation of the crisis, as it consumes 17% of water and causes the emission of 33% of greenhouse gases, which is the main cause of climate change, which represents a threat to precipitation rates. Therefore, the construction of eco-cities that use clean energy in brackish water desalination as an additional source of potable water is seemed to be an ideal solution. In this present study, the Powered Reverse Osmosis model was used depending on Photovoltaic panels to provide the energy required for operation. Saline water passed through three pre-treatment stages to decrease remove any suspended solids in BW then fed into the RO membrane through high-pressure pumps. In this experimental study, studying the effect of total dissolved solids (TDS) of the feed solution, operating pressure, and humic acid concentrations was performed. It was clear that increasing the TDS of feed water and the humic acid concentrations has a bad effect on the quality of permeate water as a reduction in TDS of permeate was observed.
In general, this present work presents a practical solution to the water crisis in cities near brackish water sources that can be treated according to the results of the experiment, which contributes to supporting the possibility of establishing eco-cities that benefit from the natural potential of water resources and solar energy in eco-cities leading to a remarkable decrease in water consumption besides mitigating the negative effects of urbanization, which limits climate change, which has become a real threat to humans in the future.
