Pilot Testing Pre-Formed Chloramines as a Means of Controlling Biofouling in Seawater Desalination

Bench-scale experiments showed that conventional chloramination of seawater created reactive products, such as bromamines, that could cause membrane oxidation. Conversely, preformed chloramines created a relatively stable total chlorine residual that could minimize biofouling while not producing reactive compounds that could oxidize RO membranes. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using preformed chloramines in seawater reverse osmosis desalination. However, high concentrations of preformed chloramines (e.g., 5% solution by weight) were found to be unstable, indicating much lower concentrations would need to be used during pilot testing.

Originally funded as WERF project Desal-09-09.