Use of a Commercial-Scale Reverse Osmosis Laboratory Module to Illustrate Interception Technology Applications in Water Pinch Network Design

Cost-effective water allocation within chemical processes continues to be a critical component for future sustainability of large chemical and polymer manufacturing plants.  Thus, designing networks for allocating and recycling process water is a key competency for chemical engineering students.  Furthermore, reverse osmosis is an example of an interception technology that can be used to purify water streams to some acceptable level prior to recycle or reuse.  A commercial-scale laboratory module coupled with water pinch technology software are used in the senior chemical engineering lab at Vanderbilt University to reinforce these design concepts and to illustrate the use of laboratory generated data to scale-up to a larger industrial water interception and recycle system.