On the Efficiency of New Designed Flow Distributor for Large Diameter Membranes

According a consortium of membranes manufacturers, it appears that 16 inches is the optimum diameter for membrane design in view of the tradeoff between cost savings and the additional risk and diminishing return associated with even larger modules and vessels. To increase the water productivity per membrane, some manufacturers provide new designed flow distributor (replacing common Anti-Telescoping Device) which allows working at very high flux. In this study, efficiency of such device is evaluated by following hydraulic and rejection performances of two 16 inch membranes installed in a potable water plant (surface water). In this work and in operating conditions applied (22 and 30 lmh), no influence of the specific flow distributor was observed.