Desalination 198 (2006) 41–46

Reverse osmosis in water treatment for boilers

Pavel Čuda, Petr Pospíšil*, Jaroslava Tenglerová
Hradec Králové Branch, MEGA a.s. Praha, Veverkova 1343, 500 02 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Tel. / Fax: +420 (498) 500-393; email: [email protected], www.mega.cz

Received 3 November 2005; Accepted 22 December 2005

Abstract
Intense treatment of feed water solves high demands on a demineralized water quality in the processes involving
hot water/steam boilers. There are various demands on water quality parameters — its hardness, alkalinity, pH value,
carbon dioxide and oxygen content, etc. — according to the type of boiler and its working pressure. Collectively,
efficient demineralization and/or softening are always inevitable. Every desalination water treatment unit consists
of a standard pre-treatment part and a demineralization part. Arrangement of the pre-treatment part depends on the
kind of water source (well, surface, or tap water) and its individual analysis. This part of a water treatment unit is
essential to protect the plant. Thereafter, the demineralization part of a water treatment unit is chosen and designed
to meet product water quality demands. There are two basic methods used for brackish water desalination in the
Czech Republic: reverse osmosis and ion exchangers. An application is presented of the Mega Company’s reverse
osmosis units in the area of water treatment for boilers. It describes some installations and their properties — source
water quality, pre-treatment techniques, and product quality. A brief comparison of the reverse osmosis process and
ion exchangers is also presented.

Keywords: Reverse osmosis; Boilers; Ion exchange; Demineralized water; Brackish water

1. Introduction important role in industrial processes and even in

local ecology. Thus, a question of proper water
Water treatment serves as supplementary tech-
treatment with respect to economical or environ-
nology in all industrial applications. The quality
mental aspects is discussed. An application of
of technological water or wastewater plays a very
advanced membrane processes enters the indus-
trial playground nowadays.
*Corresponding author.

Presented at the 2nd Membrane Science and Technology Conference of Visegrad Countries (PERMEA),
Polanica Zdroj, Poland, 18–22 September 2005.
0011-9164/06/$– See front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2006.09.007
42 P. Čuda et al. / Desalination 198 (2006) 41–46

This paper describes an application of reverse water can be treated; in small capacities it is well
osmosis (RO) in the area of water treatment for or tap water which is usually treated. The aim of
boilers and cooling systems. Two examples of the desalination and post-treatment parts of water
RO water treatment units built by Mega are treatment plants is to reach a composition of the
presented. A brief comparison of the RO process water according to regulations for the type of
and ion exchange (IE) process is also given. boiler and its working pressure. The following
Demands for boiler water quality are different methods can used to produce water of standard
for various types and working pressures of parameters for boilers from brackish waters in the
boilers. There is also a question of usage of water Czech Republic:
in boiler circuits: water can be used as circulation C IE filters (softening, decarbonization),
water or feed water to cover sludge blow-off and C one-pass RO followed by IE demineralization,
surface blow-down losses. Generally, clear and C oneppass RO followed by electro-deionization
colourless water must be assured, without sus- (EDI),
pended solids, oils and aggressive chemicals. C two-pass RO.
Other parameters of product water are low
content of hardness, alkalinity, carbon dioxide, IE filters are a conventional method for water
oxygen and SiO2, and pH value above 8.5 [1]. demineralization, softening and decarbonization.
This paper deals only with treatment of brack- It seems now that their disadvantages (e.g., high
ish water. There are some applications of RO consumption of regeneration chemicals together
technology in seawater treatment around the with production of salty wastewaters) pre-
world [2,3], successfully competing with thermal dominate over their advantages (e.g., low invest-
desalination processes [4,5]. River water treat- ment cost). RO, a well established process for
ment by RO technology is combined with water demineralization, can be introduced here
ultrafiltration in newer installations instead of due to its advantages. By using two-pass RO or a
clarification and sand filtration processes [6,7]. combination of RO with a complementary desali-
Furthermore, the application of membrane pro- nation process, it is possible to obtain product
cess pre-treatment and the RO process for puri- water with conductivity less than 0.1 µS/cm.
fication and reuse of secondary treated effluent
have been installed to the cover fresh water
requirements of power stations in Australia [8]. 3. Comparison of desalination methods
A comparison can be drawn among desali-
2. Water treatment nation methods in connection with various atti-
Water treatment units with desalination can be tudes. Generally, the most important are:
divided into a pre-treatment part, desalination part C investment costs,
and post-treatment part. Pre-treatment of the C operational costs, which can be roughly sort
source water plays a significant role in efficiency, out on costs of electric energy, chemicals and
the economical aspects and life-span of a desali- operators,
nation unit. When the investment costs of a new C ecological impact of proposed technology.
water treatment unit are calculated, the price of As said above, investment costs of pre-treatment
pre-treatment is nearly constant irrespective of are practically identical regardless of desalination
desalination method applied. method, and this can be also said about its
The set-up of the pre-treatment depends on the operational costs. Thus, a comparison of desali-
type of source water. In greater capacities surface nation methods is of interest. When the criterion
 P. Čuda et al. / Desalination 198 (2006) 41–46 43

Table 1
Comparison of chemicals costs for two technology arrangements (tap water, TDS 730 ppm; production of boiler water,
8 m3/h)

Process order

RO ÷ IE IE ÷ RO
Cons. (kg/m3) Unit price (€/kg) Cost (€/m3) Cons. (kg/m3) Unit price (€/kg) Cost (€/m3)
38% H2SO4 for RO 1.060 0.113 0.120 0.093 0.113 0.011
100% NaCl for IE 0.008 0.267 0.002 1.564 0.267 0.417
Cost on 1 m3 of product 0.122 0.428

for choosing the right desalination technology is

volume of treated water and its salinity, then:
C RO is better in treatment of large capacities
and waters with higher levels of TDS.
C IE filters are better in small capacities and
waters with low TDS.
Fig. 1. Technology set-up: (a) demanded by customer,
This contention is based on experience and on (b) proposed by Mega.
calculation of costs [9]. It can be seen from the
following example where the chemicals costs
have been calculated for RO and IE softening that with a relatively higher electrical energy cost and
the ordination of joint technologies in desali- then remove the remaining calcium and mag-
nation is also important. nesium content on an IE softening filter with a
RO units are still more expensive for treatment very small capacity and with low consumption of
of both large and small capacities, but total ope- chemicals. Nevertheless, the investment costs
rational costs are lower than chemicals costs of IE were more important in this case than the opera-
filters, but no word about their environmental tional costs with a negative environmental impact
impact. The consumption and cost of chemicals of softening by IE; thus, the technology was
in the Czech Republic are compared for a designed according to the original demand of the
relatively small capacity in Table 1. This is the customer by a competitor.
case of a potential customer who has had an old The advantages of the set-up shown at Fig. 1b
water treatment plant with softening by IE to compared to 1a are:
produce boiler water. Because of the need for C smaller osmotic pressure of feed water for RO,
product quality, they required a RO unit as a which means low pump pressure and therefore
second step to the IE unit (see Fig. 1a). The low operational costs,
chemical costs were calculated for this demand C lower alkalinity of the product,
and compared with the chemical costs of C lower concentration of dissolved solids (TDS)
technology where the order of desalination in product,
methods is reversed (see Fig. 1b). It seems better C lower concentration of dissolved solids (TDS)
from the point of view of the environment to in RO concentrate, and a small volume of
decrease the TDS of tap water on the RO unit wastewater from regeneration of the IE filter.
44 P. Čuda et al. / Desalination 198 (2006) 41–46

4. Reverse osmosis application

Application of the IE desalination process for

water treatment for boilers is widely spread in the
Czech Republic. Low mineralized well or surface
water is commonly treated so the IE process
sometimes seems economical [9]. The ecological Fig. 2. Technology set-up at Saint-Gobain Vertex,
impact of IE is overcome by the investment costs Litomyšl.
of new desalination processes, although they are
becoming less expensive. Even the operation
costs of new desalination processes are lower
with new types of low-pressure membranes (in
the case of RO) and low electrical resistance
membranes (in the case of electrodialysis and
electrodeionization processes) introduced into the
market.
When new boiler rooms are built or some
older ones are reconstructed, it can be observed
that RO is a promising alternative. IE deminerali-
zation is also sometimes used as a supplementary
second stage of demineralization after RO. Fig. 3. RO unit in Saint-Gobain Vertex, Litomyšl.
Mega has designed two RO units for appli-
cations in water treatment for boilers in recent
years [10]. Both technologies serve as a sub- aeration tower where CO2 is removed. The pH of
stitute of IE desalination units treating well water. permeate is adjusted to the proper value by an
In the first application the production of addition of NaOH solution and residual ions are
demineralized water was 2.1 m3/h; the second removed in a IE softening filter.
application produced 60 m3/h of demiwater. The RO unit pressure vessels are filled with
The first application in Saint-Gobain Vertex nine Hydranautics ESPA2-4040 membrane
(Litomyšl, Czech Republic) was designed in modules in 3×2 + 3×1 configuration. The
1999. The simple set-up of technology is shown working pressure of the unit is 13 bar.
in Fig. 2, which gives a diagrammatic repre- Overview of technology at Saint-Gobain
sentation of the system. Well water enters the Vertex:
treatment plant through the ball valves with a C treatment of well water, TDS 535 ppm
bypass. Then a protective cartridge filtration C pre-treatment: cartridge filtration, acid dosing
follows. Before well water enters the RO unit, pH C RO unit: permeate flow of 2.1 m3/h, recovery
is adjusted to the proper value by an addition of 66%
H2SO4 solution. The acid dosing is controlled C post-treatment: aeration to remove CO2, IE
according to the pH value measured by the demineralization, alkalization, and thermal
through-flow pH detector placed behind the degasification
dosing. The RO unit (Fig. 3) divides the feed
water into the permeate stream and the con- The composition of the waters in Saint-Gobain
centrate stream. The concentrate stream is drained Vertex is shown in Table 2, Col. A. The main
off and the permeate stream passes into the ions in the well water are calcium and
 P. Čuda et al. / Desalination 198 (2006) 41–46 45

Table 2
Comparison of water composition, Saint-Gobain Vertex,
Litomyšl, Czech Republic
Fig. 4. Technology set-up at Saint-Gobain Vertex,
Litomyšl (Perla a.s. Ústi nad Orlicí).
Indicator Col. A Col. B Col. C
Well water IE RO + IE
2+ !1
Ca (mg l ) 124.0 1.0 0.38
Mg2+ (mg l!1) 4.7 0.1 0.03
Na+ (mg l!1) 4.6 154.5 2.56
K+ (mg l!1) 2.7 2.7 0.07
NH4+ (mg l!1) < 0.05 < 0.05 < 0.05
HCO3! (mg l!1) 243.4 243.4 6.1
SO42! (mg l!1) 70.0 70.0 0.4
Cl! (mg l!1) 31.0 31.0 < 0.2
NO3! (mg l!1) 44.2 44.2 < 3.0
SiO2 (mg l!1) 5.0 5.0 < 0.1
pH 7.45 7.45 7.0
TDS (mg l!1) 535.0 557.0 12.0
Conductivity 827.0 768.0 13.4
(µS/cm!1) Fig. 5. RO unit in Perla, Ústí nad Orlicí.

bicarbonate. Water produced by previous tech- off and the permeate stream passes into the
nology (col. B) was characterized by low hard- aeration tower where CO2 is removed. The pH of
ness but an increased content of sodium and permeate is adjusted to the proper value by an
bicarbonate. It led to frequent surface water blow- addition of NaOH solution.
downs. With the new technology, the blow-off is The RO unit pressure vessels are filled with 30
reduced to a minimum so heating energy is also Hydranautics ESPA2-7 membrane modules in a
saved. The composition of boiler water treated by 4×5 + 2×5 configuration. Working pressure of the
new technology is presented in Col. C. unit is 12 bar.
A second application of the Mega RO unit for Overview of technology at Perla:
production of water for boilers is installed in C treatment of well water, TDS 508 ppm
Perla, Ústí nad Orlicí, Czech Republic. It was C pre-treatment: acid dosing
built in 2004. A simple set-up of the technology C two RO units: permeate flow 2×30 m3/h,
is shown in Fig. 4 which gives a diagrammatic recovery 75%
representation of system. C after-treatment: aeration to remove CO2, par-
Well water enters the treatment plant through tial alkalization, thermal degasification
the ball valves with a bypass. Then the pH is
adjusted to the proper value by an addition of
H2SO4 solution. The acid dosing is controlled
5. Conclusions
according to the pH value measured by the
through-flow pH detector placed behind the RO is very promising technology in the
dosing. The RO unit (Fig. 5) divides the feed preparation of water for boilers. Its application
water into the permeate stream and the con- allows reduction of operating costs and the
centrate stream. The concentrate stream is drained introduction of a higher level of automation of the
46 P. Čuda et al. / Desalination 198 (2006) 41–46

water treatment process. It also improves eco- References

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