Reverse Osmosis Elements Provide High Efficiency, Low Energy Seawater Desalination

Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (USA), is helping power plants, municipalities and manufacturers put the ocean to work with the new SEAMAXX Reverse Osmosis Elements, which help reduce the high amount of energy typically needed to create freshwater from saltwater.

While reverse osmosis is the most widely practiced desalination technology, The Pacific Institute estimates that seawater desalination averages about 15,000 kilowatts per hour per million gallons (3.96 kWh/m3) of water produced, making it one of the most energy-intensive, and therefore one of the most cost-intensive, water treatment processes available.

The enhanced membrane chemistry of SEAMAXX helps minimise pressure and energy consumption below any other existing seawater reverse osmosis product, and provides reliable, long-term permeate quality for single, double pass and interstaged desalination systems.

“SEAMAXX Seawater Reverse Osmosis Elements are designed to provide end-users with the lowest energy consumption in the industry, facilitating desalination at lower operating and capital costs,” said Andreas Gorenflo, global marketing manager, desalination for Dow Water & Process Solutions.

SEAMAXX has an optimised module design, with 440ft² of active membrane surface and interlocking technology that will maximise the productivity of a desalination system with low differential pressure, low cleaning frequency and high cleaning efficiency.

“Compared to generic low energy elements, SEAMAXX consumes up to 10 percent less energy and has less fouling at high operating flux,” said Veronica Garcia Molina, global desalination application development leader for Dow Water & Process Solutions. “SEAMAXX has typically demonstrated success in producing 99.7 percent water purity, and is an excellent choice for applications treating medium to high total dissolved solids, brine treatment and high salinity brackish water.”