AWWA MTC57552

Over the past 12 months, a new membrane integrity monitoring system has beendesigned for integration into a full-scale membrane system. The system, commonlyknown as the Medusa Integrity Monitoring System, has a dual analysis approachusing a combination of laser turbidity and statistical signal processing to determinethe integrity status of a membrane system. On pilot scale membrane systems, thismonitoring system has demonstrated the ability to detect an integrity loss as low asone broken fiber in a module containing more than 10,000 fibers with membranefeedwater turbidity less than 1 NTU1.Since this initial testing, the development of a full-scale Medusa integrity systemhas been completed and a system has been installed on a full-scale membrane racklocated in Westminster, Colorado. The drinking water plant is a new membranefacility and was in the final stages of construction at the time of the Medusainstallation. Since both the water treatment plant and the membrane integritymonitoring system were new, this presented an opportunity to use the Medusasystem to monitor the membrane filtrate stream for indication of integrity loss andunexpected changes during process adjustments as the facility was brought online.The objective of this paper was to cover the transition from pilot monitoring to fullscaleintegration and application of the Medusa integrity monitoring system. One keyobjective was to confirm the integrity of each membrane module as the watertreatment plant was brought on-line. After the startup, the Medusa sensors wouldbe used to monitor the membrane filtrate as changes in the treatment train upstreamof the membranes are performed.The application of this new membrane integrity monitoring system was the firstfull-scale effort to address shortcomings that have become significant issues withother integrity monitoring techniques. These issues included the need for highsensitivity and continuous on-line monitoring for integrity loss, and the ability toquickly and easily identify the compromised module. The multi-plexing approachutilized by the Medusa monitoring system provided a methodology to address theseissues in an economical manner. The partnership between the instrument designteam and the new membrane water treatment facility was designed to expose thestrengths and weaknesses of the integrity monitoring system. The goal of thistesting was to prove that the Medusa system will provide greater confidence now that themembrane system has been producing high quality water continuously over time. Includes 3 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

03/05/2003

Number of Pages:

18

File Size:

1 file , 3.1 MB