Membranes lie at the heart of any reverse osmosis system, it is therefore essential that the membranes are maintained in a good clean condition and this should be considered to be an important part of any reverse osmosis maintenance program. Effective cleaning usually requires some knowledge of the type of foulant and the cleaning options available.

 

It is essential to clean RO membranes at an early stage of fouling. It is often difficult to clean excessively fouled membranes and irreversible damage may occur during the cleaning process. 

Cleaning with a suitable ROC membrane cleaner is strongly recommended when one or more of the following parameters change by 10 – 15%, after data normalization:

• An increase in product water conductivity or salt passage.
• An increase in pressure drop across the plant.
• An increase in feed pressure.
• A decrease in normalized permeate flow (NPF) output or flux.