Quote:
Originally Posted by asmodeus
so what would the extra carbon do then Steve
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Well I figure the extra carbon would be more useful than the extra 5m, and by the end you should only need one 1m. Adding the 1m will make a significant difference.
A couple other ideas. I still stand by minimizing the product water from the membrane as the best solution. The less water you force through the membrane will reduce the chances of clogging the membrane pores. Also the extra water fed through the membrane waste will increase the Reynolds # throughout the membrane meaning a more turbulent flow which will again reduce the chance of pore clogging.
That brings me to my next possible problem. An RO membrane is designed in a way that it creates very small flow channels through layers of closely packed membrane. The idea is the water forced trough these small areas will travel at high velocity resulting in the high Reynolds # and turbulent flow. This is the most critical design property of any RO membrane and it is the reason RO units require a certain pressure. You should measure the pressure your membrane is receiving, if it's low you're likely not going to achieve a high enough Reynolds # resulting in laminar flow which no amount of prefilters will fix. Turbulent flow results in a high level of skin friction drag which will prevent particles and matter from building on the membrane surface while laminar flow will actually push matter to the membrane surface increasing build up.
Increasing your feed pressure and tubing diameter will increase your flow rate and velocity in the membrane, the higher this velocity the longer your membrane will last. But it is important that you don't also increase your product water, you'll have to sacrifice extra waste water. Have you ever measure your ratio by the way? And how often are you flushing the membrane? You could setup a very simple system to flush your membrane everyday automatically which will also help prolong the lifespan.