Vipanan is the 1st Third Party commercial laboratory in India who offers NF and RO membrane autopsy services.

#membrane autopsy

With the experience of more than two decades in water analysis,Vipanan offers Membrane Autopsy Services to its customer's which helps to understand the exact root cause of membrane failure and define methods of troubleshooting.

Desalination membranes such as NF and RO membranes tend to undergo performance deterioration with time, which depends on the efficiency of the pre-treatment. The decline in performance due to fouling or scaling of the membrane, in many cases, can be restored to some extent by means of chemical cleaning. However, the performance decline due to irreversible damage to membrane polymer cannot be restored. In order to find out the actual reason for the irreversible decline in membrane performance,autopsy becomes very essential, in addition to the investigation of the operation history of the membrane.

When VIPANAN should be called for Autopsy??

When performance loss is observed through:

  • High permeate conductivity
  • Low rejection
  • High TMP
  • High ∆P
  • Decrease in product flux
  • Increased cleaning frequency or inefficient cleaning.

The autopsy analysis can include

  • Selection of the representative membrane element(s).
  • Dissection of a fouled membrane element, to reveal the membrane leaves and spacer material.
  • Chemical, microbiological and microscopic examination.
  • Loss on ignition (LOI)
  • Identification of the key foulants.
  • Documentation through photographs.
  • Weight Measurement
  • Fujiwara Test
  • Vacuum Test
  • Functional Group Analysis
  • Salt Rejection Test
  • X-Ray Diffraction
  • SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy)
  • Comments, Solutions & Recommendations

Benefits of Membrane Autopsy

  • Exact reason for failure of system performance can be found out.
  • Effectiveness of antiscalant and other cleaners can be checked.
  • Periodic check enable us to take in time corrective action,saving cost of membrane replacement and down time.
  • Get the ideas to improve system designs and operation to overcome problems.
  • Rehabilitate membranes.
  • Improve pretreatment.
  • Opimize antiscale or biocide chemistry.
  • Improve cleaning regimes used by the plants.
  • Adjust plant operating conditions.
  • Save future cost of membranes.
For best understanding minimum two membranes should be analyzed in Autopsy.

1. Lead membrane at first stage.
2. Tail membrane at last stage.

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