Polymer and Separations (PolySep) Research Laboratory

Last update:

07/23/2007

Andi Rahardianto   B.S. Chemical Engineering University of Wisconsin - Madison (Dec. 2001)

Research Interests

•  Membrane Desalination
•  Precipitation kinetics of mineral salts
•  Accelerated precipitation of mineral salts
•  Membrane scale formation and control
• Graywater recycling
  

Current Project

Availability, capacity, and governmental regulation regarding concentrate disposal sites often become the main impediment for cost effective membrane desalination of brackish water.  To achieve high product water recovery and thus minimize brine production, one must deal effectively with membrane fouling and scaling, which leads to permeate flux decline and eventually reduction of membrane operational life. 

Part of my graduate work has been in the development of practical diagnostic approaches for systematic evaluation of the impact of operating conditions, membrane type, and antiscalant effectiveness on the formation of  mineral salt scale on RO membranes.  This has supplemented another of my study investigating the feasibility of a non-thermal process for enhancing the product water recovery in membrane desalination of Colorado River Water.  By employing an inter-stage accelerated precipitation process to treat the primary RO stage concentrate,  the study indicates that secondary stage RO desalting is capable of enhancing product water recovery from 90% to as high as 98%. 

My current project is an experimental investigation of the precipitation kinetics of multi-component electrolyte systems with compositions representative of inland brackish water.  The goal is to develop precipitation kinetics models that can be utilized to optimize accelerated precipitation and its integration into RO desalination.

Publications

Uchymiak, M., A. Rahardianto, E. Lyster, J. Glater and Y.Cohen, A novel RO ex situ scale observation detector (EXSOD) for mineral scale characterization and early detection, J. Membr. Sci. 291 (2007) 86

Gabelich, C.J., M.D. Williams, A. Rahardianto, J.C. Franklin, and Y. Cohen, High-recovery osmosis using intermediate chemical demineralization, J. Membr. Sci. (2007) doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2007.06.007

Presentations

Cohen, Y., A. Rahardianto (Presenter), R-W Lee, W-Y Shih, J. Glater, J. Gao and M.D. Williams, Membrane Desalination of High Salinity Surface and Agricultural Drainage Waters – Mineral Salt Scale Formation and Control, AIChE Annual Meeting, Nov. 16-21, 2003, San Francisco, CA

Rahardianto, A., M.D. Williams, and Yoram Cohen, Enhanced Desalination Water Recovery by Induced Mineral Precipitation and Secondary Reverse Osmosis Desalting, AWWA, CA-NV Section Spring Conference, April 4-8, 2005, Industry Hills, CA

Rahardianto, A., Y. Cohen, and M. Williams, Enhanced Water Recovery from Primary Membrane Desalination Concentrate by Precipitative Softening and Secondary Membrane Desalination, AIChE Annual Meeting, Nov. 7-12, 2004, Austin, TX

Rahardianto, A., S. Rezvani, and Y. Cohen, High Recovery Desalination of Agricultural Drainage Water: Integration of Accelerated Chemical Precipitation with RO Membrane Desalination, AIChE Annual Meeting, Oct. 30 - Nov. 4, 2005, Cincinnati, OH

Rahardianto, A., B. McCool, S. Rezvani, and Y. Cohen, High Recovery Desalination of Agricultural Drainage Water: Integration of Accelerated Seeded Precipitation with Ro Membrane Desalination, AWWA, CA-NV Section Spring Conference, Apr. 24-28, 2006, Burlingame, CA

Rahardianto, A., B. McCool, M. Uchymiak, and Y. Cohen, Impact of Mixed Mineral Salt Scaling and Its Mitigation in Brackish Water RO Desalination, AWWA, CA-NV Section Annual Fall Conference, Oct. 2-6, 2006, Long Beach, CA

Rahardianto, A., M. Uchymiak, and Y. Cohen, Mixed Mineral Scale Formation in Low-Pressure Reverse Osmosis Membrane, AIChE Annual Meeting, Nov. 12-17, 2006, San Francisco, CA

Rahardianto, A., B. McCool, M. Uchymiak, Y. Cohen, RO Membrane Desalination of Inland Brackish Water: Scaling by Gypsum in the Presence of Bicarbonate, NAMS Annual Meeting, May 12-16, 2007, Orlando, FL

Contact Information

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