COURSE OVERVIEW:

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is today one of the most widely used technologies for seawater and brackish water desalination, providing high quality water for municipal, industrial, and upstream oil and gas applications. Successful RO operation requires an integrated understanding of feed water quality, pretreatment, membrane characteristics, system design, operation, troubleshooting, and optimization. Poorly designed or operated RO plants suffer from frequent fouling, scaling, high energy consumption, and unstable product quality.

This course presents a comprehensive and practical overview of RO desalination technology from concept to operation. It explains the principles of membrane separation, the components of RO systems, key design parameters, and how feed water quality and pretreatment determine long term performance. The course also focuses on monitoring and diagnosing problems such as fouling, scaling, and loss of performance, as well as optimizing energy consumption and chemical usage.

Realistic examples and case studies from seawater and brackish water RO plants will be used to show how theory is applied in the field. The course is aimed at engineers, operators, and technical staff who are involved in the design, operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of RO plants in utilities, industry, and oil and gas facilities.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

After completion of this course, the participants will be able to:

1. Explain the basic principles of membrane separation and osmosis and how they are applied in reverse osmosis desalination.
2. Describe the main types of desalination technologies and position RO in relation to thermal and other membrane processes.
3. Interpret feed water analyses and identify key parameters that influence RO design and performance, such as salinity, scaling potential, organics, and microbiological activity.
4. Describe the main components of an RO desalination plant, including intake, pretreatment, high pressure pumps, membrane trains, energy recovery devices, and post treatment systems.
5. Explain the characteristics and performance parameters of RO membranes, including salt rejection, flux, permeability, and fouling susceptibility.
6. Understand the key design concepts for RO systems such as recovery, flux, staging, array design, and concentration polarization control.
7. Evaluate and compare different pretreatment options such as conventional filtration, coagulation and flocculation, cartridge filtration, and membrane pretreatment using microfiltration or ultrafiltration.
8. Identify common types of membrane fouling and scaling and explain their causes, symptoms, and impacts on RO performance.
9. Develop and review operating procedures for start-up, shutdown, normal operation, and preservation of RO systems.
10. Apply performance monitoring tools and indicators, including differential pressure, normalized permeate flow, normalized salt rejection, and specific energy consumption.
11. Plan and evaluate chemical cleaning strategies, including selection of cleaning chemicals, cleaning frequencies, and cleaning procedures for different fouling types.
12. Troubleshoot common RO operational issues such as rapid fouling, loss of rejection, biofouling, scaling, and permeating quality upsets.
13. Describe post treatment processes such as remineralization, pH adjustment, disinfection, and blending to meet potable and industrial water specifications.
14. Assess the main contributors to energy consumption in RO plants and explain how energy recovery devices and process optimization can reduce energy use.
15. Recognize safety and environmental considerations associated with RO desalination, including chemical handling, high pressure systems, and brine management.
16. Prepare basic technical and operational improvement recommendations for existing RO desalination plants.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

-Process and desalination engineers working in water utilities, industrial plants, and oil and gas facilities

-Operations engineers and plant supervisors responsible for RO desalination units

-Control room and field operators involved in day-to-day running of RO plants

-Maintenance and reliability engineers dealing with RO equipment, pumps, and auxiliaries

-Water quality, laboratory, and environmental specialists supporting RO operations

-Project and design engineers involved in new desalination projects or plant expansions

-Technical staff from RO membrane and chemical suppliers and service providers

-HSE professionals concerned with chemical handling, high pressure systems, and brine disposal

TRAINING COURSE METHODOLOGY:

A highly interactive combination of lectures, discussion sessions, and case studies will be employed to maximise the transfer of information, knowledge, and experience. The course will be intensive, practical, and highly interactive. The sessions will start by raising the most relevant questions and motivating everybody to find the right answers. The attendants will also be encouraged to raise more of their questions and to share in developing the right answers using their analysis and experience. There will also be some indoor experiential activities to enhance the learning experience. Course material will be provided in PowerPoint, with necessary animations, learning videos, and general discussions.

The course participants shall be evaluated before, during, and after the course.

COURSE CERTIFICATE:

National Consultant Centre for Training LLC (NCC) will issue an Attendance Certificate to all participants completing a minimum of 80% of the total attendance time requirement.