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In water-scarce regions, desalinating brackish groundwatercan represent an important alternative resource for water utilities.High-pressure membranes that use reverse osmosis and nanofiltrationare recognized as a viable desalination technology.Although new membranes are being rapidly introduced into themarket, there is no general, systematic protocol for evaluatingtheir performance. Developing such a protocol will allow utilitiesto standardize membrane-screening procedures, ultimately benefitingthe manufacturers as well as the utilities. This article presentsa step-by-step approach to pilot-testing the new-generationmembranes. The proposed steps are basic data collection, comparativepilot-testing, optimization pilot-testing, membraneautopsy, and feasibility analysis. The pilot-testing conductedaccording to this protocol showed clear performance improvementsbetween an established membrane and a new-generationmembrane. The testing also demonstrated that the new membraneshave greatly improved operating pressures, which couldlead to substantial operational cost savings. Includes 18 references, tables, figures.

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Edition: Vol. 98 - No. 4 Published: 04/01/2006 Number of Pages: 11 File Size: 1 file , 390 KB