Reverse Osmosis Membrane Cleaning is an essential part in the routine maintenance process for protecting your commercial water treatment investment. Regular membrane cleaning will prevent damage to your system while extending the life of your membranes, thus saving you money on replacements.

Membrane-based water treatment technologies that are prone to fouling, consist of reverse osmosis, microfiltration, nanofiltration, and ultrafiltration. Main causes of membrane fouling consist of a decline in your water quality, strong smell caused by biological growth on your membranes, and build up forming on the membrane edges.

For example, increased pressure drops at the first stage of the filtration system usually signal fouling by colloidal, either inorganic or organic, or by bacteria. This is often managed by using a low pH soak followed by alkaline cleaning. Elevated pressure drops at the final stage indicate mineral deposition, which can be addressed by identifying the specific minerals involved. System or antiscalant projections, along with mineral analysis of the feed and concentrate, can guide the choice of cleaning agents – low pH cleaners for carbonate scales and alkaline chelant cleaners for sulfate scales.

It is best practice to have reverse osmosis membranes cleaned then normalized flow decreases by 10-15% from the intimal acceptance test conditions. It can be difficult to recover performance if the system has operated in a fouled condition for an extended period of time. Operating in a fouled condition can also cause irreversible damage to the membrane performance, which would require costly replacements if left unchecked.