ABSTRACT
Particulate/colloidal and organic fouling in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) systems results in flux decline, higher energy costs, increased salt passage, increased cleaning frequency, and use of chemicals. In practice, indices like SDI and MFI are used to assess particulate fouling, but they are performed at very high initial flux (> 1500 L/m2-h) and do not take into account the deposition of particles/colloids in RO systems.
