Abstract
SWRO-PRO hybrid desalination technology is recently getting more attention especially in large desalination markets such as USA, Middle East, Japan, Singapore, etc. because of its promising potential to recover a considerable amount of osmotic energy from brine (a high-concentration solution of salt, 60,000 - 80,000 mg/L) and also to minimize the impact of the discharged brine into a marine ecosystem. By the research and development of the core technologies of the SWRO-PRO desalination system in a national desalination research project (Global MVP) supported by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) and Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA), it is anticipated that around 25% of total energy consumption rate (generally 3 to $4kWh/m^3$) of the SWRO desalination can be reduced by recovering the brine's osmotic energy utilizing wastewater treatment effluent as a PRO feed solution and an isobaric pressure exchanger (PX, ERI) as a PRO energy converter. However, there are still several challenges needed to be overcome in order to ultimately commercialize the novel SWRO-PRO process. They include system optimization and integration, development of efficient PRO membrane and module, development of PRO membrane fouling control technology, development of design and operation technology for the system scaling-up, development of diverse business models, and so on. In this paper, the current status and progress of the pilot study of the newly developed SWRO-PRO hybrid desalination technology is discussed.