Performance evaluation of a reverse osmosis membrane desalination equipment for application in rural communities in the Brazilian semi-arid region

ABSTRACT Water scarcity is an increasing problem worldwide, driven by the growth of the global population and the effects of climate change. The situation in Brazil is no different, especially in the semi-arid region of the Northeast, which faces low and inconsistent annual rainfall and lacks adequate and sustainable surface water. Local groundwater has been used to mitigate the effects of severe droughts; however, most of the groundwater in the region is considered brackish or saline. The use of desalination equipment in the region has been applied to address the salinity issue, in order to provide fresh water for communities. This paper aims to develop a membrane desalination system for well water applications in communities in the area, designed with optimized conditions for operation and standardized equipment for mass production applications. The results show that the system performs optimally with well water containing up to 4,000 mg/L of total dissolved solids (TDS) and reaches an estimated limit of 7,860 mg/L. The experiments provided a permeate flow rate of 200.41 L/h at minimum production and 497.10 L/h at maximum production.