Safety and reliability aspects of sea water reverse osmosis desalination plants

Being a societal support system, desalination plants have to stand the test of operational safety and reliability of performance. The system design has to take into account all the safety related features in terms of mechanical integrity under high pressure operation and corrosion point of view. Provision of standby equipment, proper instrumentation and controls, periodical maintenance and following all the safe operational procedures ensure the reliability and safety. In this paper, the safety and reliability aspects of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants are discussed in detail, including the case study of a 1800 m3/day seawater RO plant, integrated with a nuclear desalination system. (author)