ABSTRACT
Seawater desalination is a promising solution to handle the challenge of meeting the water demand of an ever-increasing population. Seawater desalination techniques are mainly classified into two types: processes based on physical change in the state of the water or distillate through evaporation, and processes using a membrane that employ the concept of filtration. Biofouling occurs when microorganisms grow in the membrane system by utilizing the biodegradable substances from the water phase and converting them into metabolic products and biomass. For successful operation and control of reverse osmosis (RO), the raw seawater needs to be pre-treated before it passes through the RO membrane system. Generally, physical cleaning is applied prior to chemical cleaning. Physical cleaning includes air/water flushing cleaning. Assimilable organic carbon is the fraction of dissolved organic carbon, which is utilized by heterotrophic bacteria for their growth. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
