Developing a protocol to evaluate new-generation membranes for desalinating brackish groundwater

In water-scarce regions, desalinating brackish groundwater can represent an important alternative resource for water utilities High-pressure membranes that use reverse osmosis and nanofiltration are recognized as a viable desalination technology. Although new membranes are being rapidly introduced into the market, there is no general, systematic protocol for evaluating their performance. Developing such a protocol will allow utilities to standardize membrane-screening procedures, ultimately benefiting the manufacturers as well as the utilities. This article pre sents a step-by-step approach to pilot-testing the new-generation membranes. The proposed steps are basic data collection, comparative pilot-testing, optimization pilot-testing, membrane autopsy, and feasibility analysis. The pilot-testing conducted according to this protocol showed clear performance improvements between an established membrane and a new-generation membrane. The testing also demonstrated that the new membranes have greatly improved operating pressures, which could lead to substantial operational cost savings.