Question

in one full, elaborate paragraph compare and contrast the desalination processes RO AND MSF

Answer 1

Around the world,two techniques used for Desalination are : MULTI STAGE DESALINATION (MSF) & REVERSE OSMOSIS (RO). Energy is required in RO Plant to pump brine at higher pressure to RO membrane. Along the similar lines , energy is supplied as heat energy to brine in MSF Plant to vaporize brine. However, this difference in form of energy supplied is major consideration in selecting RO or MSF Plant. RO plant requires energy in the form of electric power to generate higher pressure of brine whereas MSF plant requires steam (normally saturated) to heat brine. Therefore, installation of MSF Plant requires boiler and associated facilities to produce seam. Therefore, it is economical to select MSF if excess steam is available from any nearby facilities so that production of steam is not required. Energy requirement in RO plant is also less than MSF Plant.

Yield from RO Plant is higher than MSF Plant. Therefore, for same production of water RO system requires less amount of sea water and in turn produces less spent brine therefore management of spent brine involves less cost. Additionally, spent brine from MSF plant shall be at higher temperature than sea water so as per environment law of many countries , this spent brine needs to be cooled down before discharging it back to sea. Thai leads to additional cost in operating MSF Plant.

MSF plant produces higher purity water with dissolved concentration generally less than 100mg/l. But in the case of RO, water having higher concentration of solid is produced. Therefore, to produce water of quality same as MSF, ,generally RO system are installed in series which increasea the cost of RO Plant.