The integration of water vane pump and hydraulic vane motor for a small desalination system

An integration of water vane pump and hydraulic vane motor was introduced in small reverse osmosis (RO) system, in which the hydraulic vane motor was used as energy recovery device. The hydraulic performance and energy consumption of one combination of pump and hydraulic motor were investigated under different operation conditions. This type of integration pump reduces energy cost and simplifies the system setup, thus it could be an alternative choice for small RO desalination system. Our results demonstrated that the improvement of volumetric efficiencies of the pump and the hydraulic motor was the main factor to increase the prototype pump performance.

Research highlights
► An integration of vane pump and hydraulic vane motor was presented in RO system.
► The hydraulic vane motor was used as energy recovery device (ERD).
► The performance was tested under different pressure conditions of membrane module.
► The energy reduction percentage was about 20% at the maximum operation pressure.
► Compared with other ERDs, This type device is easier to operate and maintain.