DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVED CLEANING SOLUTION FOR ROWPU UNITS

THIS PHASE I PROGRAM IS DIRECTED TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVEDCLEANING SOLUTION FORMULATION FOR CLEANING FOULED ROWPU MEMBRANE ELEMENTS, WITH THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE OF A LOW-COST GENERIC FORMULATION THAT CAN BE PRE-PACKAGED AS DRY CHEMICALS FOR USE ON BOTH ARMY AND MARINE CORPS ROWPU UNITS. DURING THIS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOUR PRIMARY FACTORS ARE CONSIDERED: 1) THE CHEMISTRY, STRUCTURE, AND PROPERTIES OF THE THIN-FILM COMPOSITE MEMBRANE ELEMENTS QUALIFIED FOR USE IN ROWPU UNITS, 2) INTERACTIONS OF VARIOUS CHEMICALS WITH THE MEMBRANES, 3) THE EFFECT OF SOLUTION PH, IONIC STRENGTH, AND TEMPERATURE ON THE MEMBRANES, AND 4) THE NATURE OF FOULANTS TO BE REMOVED FROM THE MEMBRANE SURFACE.