Best Practices for the Operation and Maintenance of Seawater Desalination Plants
Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination has become one of the most widely deployed technologies for securing potable water in water-scarce regions. Its rapid expansion is driven by technological maturity, modularity, and continuous improvements in energy efficiency. Despite these advances, the long-term performance of desalination plants is still strongly dependent on operation and maintenance (O&M) practices rather than on design alone. Extensive research has demonstrated that fouling, scaling, and operational instability remain the dominant causes of performance decline in full-scale SWRO plants, leading to increased energy consumption, reduced permeate quality, and higher life-cycle costs [1–3]. The global desalination sector has evolved … Continue reading