Work

Enhancing the Efficiency of Reverse Osmosis Process: A Study on Feed Pressure, Energy Consumption, and Green Hydrogen Generation

Year: 2026

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Reverse osmosis method forms one of the key technologies used in desalination operations to deal with high salinity levels in water. In addition, RO processes can be utilized in the production of renewable hydrogen. In this research paper, we have developed a mathematical model based on the FORTRAN programming language that describes the behavior of a pilot plant RO module integrated with PVs operating on groundwater extracted from the Ain El Atti region. To evaluate the impact of feed pressure variations, ranging from 10 to 20 bar, while maintaining constant parameters of 28.60 °C in temperature and 6.67 in pH level, on permeate flux, salt rejection rate, recovery, and specific energy consumption, we tested our simulation program using experimental data obtained from pilot tests. Our simulation results showed very good correlation with real-life experiments, as indicated by the low average relative error of 2.687 %. Increasing feed pressure led to an increase in permeate flux by 187 L/h to 250 L/h, salt rejection rate from 93.70 % to 94.93 %, but also increased the SEC from 1.24 to 1.67 kWh/m 3 . From these results, we have shown that the RO process is critical in removing ions from the water before electrolysis.

Source: EPJ Web of Conferences

DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/202638303008

Authors: Abderrahim Maftouh, Mohammed Chennaif, Omkaltoume El Fatni, Oumaima Kanibou, Yassine Ezaier, Oussama El Manssouri