Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x(Print)/1976-3824(Online)
DOI 10.1007/s12206-016-0953-4

Multi objective optimization of reverse osmosis desalination plant with

exergy approach†
Somayyeh Sadri, Ramin Haghighi Khoshkhoo* and Mohammad Ameri
Faculty of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, P.O. Box 16765-1719, Tehran, Iran

(Manuscript Received February 14, 2016; Revised April 16, 2016; Accepted May 24, 2016)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract

A brackish water reverse osmosis desalination plant based on exergy analysis was simulated and its performance was investigated. The
computational model base on diffusion and convection transport mechanisms and concentration polarization concept was developed to
predict the performance of RO membrane using different feed water concentration, feed flow rate, feed water pressure, membrane speci-
fication and feed water properties. The mathematical model has had good accuracy with reference data. The influence of operating pa-
rameters such as feed water pressure and temperature on the performance of the system was studied. Exergetic efficiency and destruction
of streams exergy were calculated. Finally, multi-objective optimization for highest exergetic efficiency and permeate flow rate was done.
Keywords: Desalination; Exergy analysis; Multi objective optimization; Reverse osmosis (RO)
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optimal plant operation of Brackish water reverse osmosis

1. Introduction
(BWRO) desalination to reduce specific energy consumption
Due to population growth, water shortage is a threat to fu- [11]. Sundaramoorthy et al. presented a new analytical model
ture generations. The lack of fresh water, due to the increasing that yields explicit equations for spatial variations of pressure,
industrial development, climate change and environmental fluid velocity and solute concentration on the feed channel
pollution is severe. Researchers try to develop new methods side of the spiral wound RO module [12]. Jiang et al. investi-
for water desalination. Membrane technology, using osmosis gated accurate prediction of RO process performance and
membrane, is one of the most effective methods for providing energy cost saving through systematic optimization of an
drinking water. SWRO process [13, 14].
In this method, the osmosis pressure difference is used to Zhu et al. computed the optimum Specific energy consump-
separate permeate water from the impurities. In this separation tion (SEC), corresponding water recovery, and permeate flux
process, the so-called "RO", the pressure driving force is used for single stage and two-stage RO membrane desalination
to force water molecules through a semipermeable membrane. systems and proposed a time-varying optimal operation policy
The required pressure for purification depends on the salt con- that can significantly reduce the specific energy consumption
centration of the feed flow. The typical required pressure for compared to time-invariant process operation [15]. Eshoul et
brackish and sea water is 40 and 80 bar, respectively [1]. al. presented an exergy analysis of an actual two-pass (RO)
Energy cost in RO desalination systems is about 45 percent desalination system with the seawater solution treated as a real
of total production costs of fresh; thus the RO process con- mixture and not an ideal mixture [16]. Mistry et al. studied
sumes considerable energy. Therefore, researchers try to various desalination technologies: MSF, MED, RO, Mechani-
found optimum production flow rate of water with highest cal vapor compression (MVC), Direct contact membrane
efficiency. In the past decades, many research studies that (DCM), and Humidification-dehumidification (HD). The
improved membrane performance, economical design and study revealed that RO desalination had the best exergetic
optimization of system performance in reducing energy costs efficiency, at 31.9%, while those of other technologies were
were used in the RO system [2-9]. Lee et al. studied the dy- much lower typically 2.9% (MSF), 5.9% (MED), 8.5%
namic characteristics and process operation aspects of an in- (MVC), 1% (DCM) and 2.4% (HD) [17]. Kempton et al. ana-
dustrial large scaled RO desalination plant [10]. Li studied lyzed exergy in reverse osmosis (RO), multi-effect (MED),
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 73932663, Fax.: +98 21 77311446 and MSF desalination. They found typical exergy efficiencies
E-mail address: r_haghighi@sbu.ac.ir of 30.10%, 14.27% and 7.73%, respectively [18]. Jeonga et al.
†
Recommended by Associate Editor Yong-Tae Kim
analyzed the thin film nano-composite membrane technology
© KSME & Springer 2016
4808 S. Sadri et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814

in reverse osmosis process [19]. Shen et al. explored the influ-

ence of pore size of nanofiber membrane on filtration and gas
resistance [20]. Zarzoum et al. presented a new concept of a
distiller solar still using humidification-dehumidification proc-
esses [21]. In the current paper, a detailed computational
model based on diffusion and convection transport mecha-
nisms and concentration polarization concept on of the mem-
brane system to predict the system behavior under different Fig. 1. Schematic of RO system.
operating conditions is presented. Sensitivity analysis was
done on various parameters. Finally, multi-objective optimiza- Dp entrance = f os C f - p p , (7)
tion to achieve maximum exergetic efficiency and the perme-
Dp exit = f os Cr - p p . (8)
ate water was carried out. This is a complete study on RO
desalination systems that can be used in different studies.
For high levels of salt, the osmotic pressure of the permeate
2. Description of problem water can be ignored, then:

2.1 Theory
Cf
Cr = . (9)
Schematic of reverse osmosis desalination system is shown 1-Y
in Fig. 1. Specific energy consumption (SEC) refers to the
amount of energy required to produce 1 cubic meter of perme- The osmotic pressure difference between permeate and
ate water. To simplify the analysis, the required electrical en- brine is calculated as follows:
ergy and the pump work can be considered equal. Accord-
ingly, SEC value is calculated as follows [15]: Rp 0
Dp exit = . (10)
1-Y
·
SEC = W pump Qp , (1) Eq. (10) is a simple formula shows that achieving high re-
·
covery water desalination in RO system needs to increase the
W pump = DP ´ Q f , (2)
osmotic pressure. RO desalination process requires an external
DP = Pf - P0 . (3) pressure to overcome the osmotic pressure and permeate water
recovered from feed solution using a semi-permeable mem-
Permeate product water recovery for RO process as an im- brane. Assuming that the permeate pressure is equal to the raw
portant factor is calculated as follows: water pressure, the applied pressure should be no less than the
osmotic pressure difference at the exit region. Therefore, to
Qp ensure the production of permeate water along the module;
Y= . (4)
Qf pressure following condition is considered [15]:

Rp 0
Permeate flow rate can be estimated through the classical DP ³ Dp exit = . (11)
reverse osmosis production flux relationship: 1-Y

This limitation, especially with the high permeability of

Qp = Am Lp (DP - s Dp ) . (5)
membranes for water desalination with lower pressure, is im-
portant.
In general, osmotic pressure varies linearly with concentra-
tion ( p = f osC , that f os is osmotic pressure coefficient and
2.2 Modeling based on the concentration polarization
C concentration of salt). The average osmotic pressure differ-
ence (to achieve high water recovery rates), along the mem- As water flows through the membrane and the membrane
brane channel can be estimated based on the following equa- rejects salts, a boundary layer is formed near the membrane
tion: surface which exceeds the salt concentration in the bulk solu-
tion. This increase of salt concentration is called concentration
f os C f 1 polarization. The effect of concentration polarization is to
Dp = (1 + ). (6)
2 1-Y reduce actual product water flow rate and salt rejection versus
theoretical estimates. Concentration polarization determines
The osmotic pressure in the entry and exit of membrane the osmotic pressure of feed water flow. The effect of concen-
module according to the permeate flow is estimated as fol- tration polarization and frictional pressure drop for single RO
lows: membrane elements (with length L, height H and width W for
 S. Sadri et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814 4809

Fig. 4. Schematic view of modules.

Fig. 2. RO membrane module.

where v = Q f H ´ W and Re w ( x) = HJn ( x) r m . Modeling

for each category ( Pf , Q f ) is done and water recovery and the
average concentration of permeate water and the total recov-
ery and average concentration of permeate flow can be calcu-
lated. To simulate the axial variation of the concentration
along the membrane surface and the resulting permeate flux
and salt concentration for a given pair of Pf , Q f the membrane
Fig. 3. Concentration Polarization over the membrane surface. length is divided into N parts. In the present study, a series of
seven similar elements was analyzed as follows.
the schematic shown in Fig. 2) was investigated. A sample of The cumulative permeate flow at each axial position is cal-
spiral-wound membrane module geometry has been shown. culated as:
The membrane is divided into N parts. The axial position is
x
introduced as xn = nL N . At the entrance x0 = 0 , at the
Qp , A (x) = W ò J ( x ' )dx ' . (17)
exit, xN = L , where L is the membrane length. 0
Concentration polarization is defined on boundary layer
formed on the membrane. Cumulative water recovery is obtained by the following
equation:
Cm ( x ) - C p ( x ) Jn ( x)
= exp[ ]. (12)
C f - C p ( x) k ( x) Qp , A (x)
Y ( x) = . (18)
Qf
So that the mass transfer coefficient is expressed by the Eq.
(13):
The average permeates concentration for this membrane el-
1 3Q f D 1 3 2 ement can be calculated as follows:
k(x) = [ ] . (13)
1.475 H 2W x
L

C p = W ò J s ( x)dx YQ f . (19)
The local permeate flux is calculated by membrane perme- 0

ability and pressure driving force:

For the second element feed water mixed with brine water
p0
Jn (x) = Lp [Pf - aD Pfric (x) - [1 - b f output from the previous elements and the same procedure is
Cf repeated.
(14)
p0
[Cm (x)]]C m (x) + [1 - b f [C p (x)]]C p (x)].
Cf 2.3 Exergy analysis

Exergy flow amount can be expressed as follows:

And the salt flux is governed by the combination of diffu-
sion and convection transport mechanisms through the mem- n
e f = (h - h* ) - T0 ( s - s* ) + å i=1 ( mi* -mi0 ) . (20)
brane as given below:

J s (x) = C p (x) Jn (x) = k s [C m ( x) The first two sentences represent the physical exergy and
(15) last part represents chemical exergy. Properties with * in Eq.
-C p ( x)] + (1 - s ) Jn (x)(C f + Cm ( x)) / 2.
(20) are determined at the temperature and pressure of the
environment (T0, P0) but at the same composition or concen-
Frictional pressure drop is estimated by the below equation: tration of the initial state. This is referred to as the restricted
dead state, in which only the temperature and pressure are
1 2 24 648 Re w changed to the environmental values. However, the properties
DPfric ( x) = ( r v )( - )
2 Re 35 Re
(16) with 0 in the Eq. (20) are determined at the temperature, pres-
2 Re w x x sure and concentration of the environment (T0, P0, w0), which
(1 - )( )
Re H H is called the global dead state.
4810 S. Sadri et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814

Table 1. Modeling parameters. Table 2. Result verification.

Parameter Value Current study Ref. [22] Error (%)

Feed flow rate (m3/h) 7.5 Overall permeate conc. (ppm) 108.0953 108 0.08
Feed concentration (ppm) 4000 Salt rejection (%) 97.30 97.30 0
Water permeability (m2/s) 1.2e-9 Overall water recovery (%) 48.03 -- --
Membrane length (m) 1
Membrane area (m2) 37.2
Height of spacer channel (m) 5.93e-4
Number of elements 7

Fig. 8. Overall permeate water flow rate on elements.

Fig. 5. Permeate flux in length of element.

Fig. 9. Overall permeate concentration on the elements.

Fig. 6. Permeate concentration in length of element.

Fig. 10. Exergetic efficiency of RO module with pressure increasing.

Fig. 7. Concentration polarization in length of element.
3. Results and discussion
The initial values required for modeling are given in Table 1.
When feed water concentration is considered 4000 ppm and
pressure is estimated 818480 Pa (119Psi); modeling can be
done. Concentration polarizations that occur on the membrane
element increase and production of permeate flow decreases.
That is due to the accumulation of salt on the membrane. So,
the concentration of permeate water flow goes up. This trend
can be seen in all elements. For example, the production of
permeate water and the concentration polarization in the sev-
enth element is shown.
Overall permeate water flow rate from seventh elements is
shown in Fig. 8. Overall concentration of the permeate water
produced in the elements is shown in Fig. 9. Permeate concen-
tration and salt rejection were 108.0953 ppm and 97.30%,
respectively (Table 2). By changing the pressure of the feed
water entering RO module, can be achieved the following
results in Table 3.
With increasing pressure as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, exer-
getic efficiency and the overall recovery of permeate water
increases, but this requires more energy consumption and the
components of the system must be capable of resistance on
 S. Sadri et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814 4811

Table 3. Result.

Pressure (Pa) 692560 755520 818480 881440 944400

Brine exergy (J/kg) 5.73E+04 6.07E+04 6.32E+04 6.49E+04 6.61E+04
Brine exergy destruction (J/kg) 5.72E+04 6.05E+04 6.28E+04 6.43E+04 6.52E+04
Total exergy destruction (J/kg) 755.0938 791.5411 787.9463 736.7841 630.976
Exergetic efficiency (%) 21.76 28.89 37.47 47.58 59.3
Permeate flow rate (m3/s) 7.72E-04 8.92E-04 0.001 0.0011 0.0012
Salt rejection (%) 97.05 97.21 97.3 97.33 97.33
Permeate concentration (ppm) 117.8606 111.4071 108.0953 106.8157 106.9384
Overall water recovery (%) 37.04 42.82 48.03 52.69 56.86

Fig. 11. Overall water recovery of RO module with pressure increasing. Fig. 13. Permeate concentration of RO system with pressure increasing.

Fig. 12. Permeate flow rate of RO system with pressure increasing. Fig. 14. Brine exergy destruction with pressure increasing.

pressure. When applied pressure is increased, net driving pres-

sure and production of permeate flow can be increased. This
occurs due to overcoming the osmotic resistance of brine wa-
ter. So more permeate water can be passed through the mem-
brane (Fig. 12).
High applied pressure increases the net driving pressure
force, and the concentration of permeate flow reduces. Speci-
fications of the membrane can be due to the restriction of con-
centration reduction. So, after reaching a minimum level, the Fig. 15. Salt rejection with pressure increasing.
pressure is not generating significant changes in the concentra-
tion of permeate water (Fig. 13). constant (Fig. 15).
When applied pressure increases, exergy destruction of Fig. 16 shows the variation of exergy destruction with the
brine will be increased. This value depends on brine concen- operating temperature (P = 119 Psi). If the temperature of raw
tration increasing in high applied pressure levels, then man- water increases, overall exergy destruction can be reduced and
agement of waste water discharge can be prevented by the exergetic efficiency can be increased (Fig. 17). Note that the
exergy loss (Fig. 14). Salt rejection increased with applied temperature range used in membranes is exactly defined.
pressure increasing, and this value according to the specifica- Fig. 18 shows the variation of total exergy destruction with
tions of the system after reaching a maximum value will be the operating temperature for various pressures. It can be seen
4812 S. Sadri et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814

Table 4. Setting of GA.

Population size 500

Number of generation 2000
Probability of crossover 0.7
Number of crossover points 2
Probability of mutation 0.01
Selection process Tournament
Tournament size 2

Fig. 16. Total exergy destruction according to pressure increasing.

Table 5. Ranges of decision variables.

Variables Lower bound Upper bound

Area of the membrane (m2) 30 45
Feed water flow rate (kg/s) 0.001 0.003
Water permeability (m2/s) 1e-9 2e-9

Table 6. Optimum value.

Fig. 17. Exergetic efficiency according to pressure increasing. Membrane surface (m2) 41.97
Feed water flow rate (kg/s) 0.0021
Water permeability (m2/s) 1.45e-09
Exergetic efficiency (%) 52.08
Permeate flow rate (m3/s) 0.0011

Fig. 18. Total exergy destruction as a function of temperature on vari-

ous pressures.

Fig. 20. Pareto diagram of multi objective optimization result.

with increasing pressure, exergetic efficiency increases.

Fig. 19. Exergetic efficiency as a function of temperature on various
pressures.
that total exergy destruction of the system will be decreased.
Fig. 19 shows the variation of exergetic efficiency with the
operating temperature for various pressures. As can be seen,
To find the optimal results, an optimization using the Ge-
netic algorithm (GA) is applied. The setting of GA used for
multi objective optimization of RO system is as Table 4.
In the optimization process the decision variables are: area
of the membrane, feed water flow rate and water permeability.
To reduce the number of non-feasible solution sthat may oc-
cur during optimization process, the suitable range has been
selected for decision variables (Table 5).
Exergetic efficiency and permeate water is chosen as the
objective function. Due to the lack of the ideal point on the
chart (Fig. 20), a decision-making method was used to select
the optimum point. The optimum point information (Exergetic
 S. Sadri et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (10) (2016) 4807~4814 4813

efficiency = 52.08% and permeate water flow rate = 0.0011

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Ramin Haghighi Khoshkhoo received
his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engi-
neering from University of Tehran, and
Ph.D. from University of Joseph Fourier,
France. He is currently Assistant Profes-
sor and Director of Energy and thermal
power plants Groups in Mechanical and
Energy Engineering in Shahid Beheshti
University, Iran. His research interests include study of energy,
power plants, renewable energy, heat exchangers, cogenera-
tion and desalination.
Mohammad Ameri received his B.S.,
M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineer-
ing from Sharif University of Technol-
ogy, Amir-Kabir University of Technol-
ogy and Case Western Reserve Univer-
sity (Ohio, USA). Mr. Ameri is cur-
rently Associate Professor and Director
of Energy Conversion Group at the Fac-
ulty of Mechanical and Energy Engineering in Shahid Beheshti
University, Iran. His research interests include study of cogenera-
tion, heat exchangers, power plant thermodynamic, renewable
energy, optimization, heat transfer and exergy analysis.