Optimization of RO Unit Pre-Treatment System to Prevent Red Tide Impact on Persian Gulf Coast

High concentrations of algae cause the sea surface to turn red and there is a possibility of discoloration to yellow, green and brown, which has eventually led to the death of many marine aquatic animals. The extent of the red tide has polluted the sea surface, making it impossible to accurately predict this phenomenon. These algae are phytoplankton with a concentration of about 2000 per liter. With the growth and multiplication of these phytoplankton in the Persian Gulf, the turbidity of seawater has increased sharply and desalination units in the region have problems such as rapid clogging of filters and reduced freshwater production. In this research, using GPS-X 8.0 simulator software, the effect of red tide phenomenon on the conventional reverse osmosis unit pre-treatment process and also the optimization of the reverse osmosis unit pre-treatment process with two methods DAF+DMF and UF+DMF are investigated. it placed. The results showed that the removal rate of TOC variable in the conventional method was 44% and in the two optimized methods mentioned was 95% and 76%, respectively, and the turbidity removal rate was 18% in the conventional method and in the two optimized methods mentioned was 94% and 78%, respectively. Also, with the economic evaluation, the cost of implementing the DAF+DMF method was estimated to be approximately 27% lower than the cost of implementing the UF+DMF method. The results show that the DAF+DMF method in the pretreatment process, technically and economically has the best performance when the red tide occurs, which is suggested to be considered in the design of seawater desalination units.