Identification, Modelling, and Control of Continuous Reverse Osmosis Desalination System: A Review

Desalination is a separation process used to reduce the amount of dissolved salts in seawater or brackish water to a usable or potable level by distillation, multiple effect vapor compression, evaporation, or by membrane processes such as electro-dialysis reversal, nano-filtration, and reverse osmosis (RO). RO is the most widely used desalination process. Recent advances in RO technology have led to more efficient separation and now is the most cost-effective process to operate. The performance of the Reverse Osmosis process is dependent on the concentration of dissolved solids in the feed-water, feed-water pressure, and the membrane strength to withstand system pressure, membrane solute rejection, membrane fouling characteristics, and the required permeate solute concentration. RO is a promising tool that uses cellulose acetate (or) polyamide membrane and is widely chosen as the cost of production is reduced by the use of energy-efficient and process-control techniques. This article presents a review of literature survey of identification of parameters, dynamic modelling, and control of desalination system in the past twenty years by collecting more than 65 literatures.