Case Study

Background
La Caleta is a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant located in southern Tenerife, one of the two major islands in
the archipelago. The plant had an initial capacity of 10,000 m³/day. In 2019, the plant replaced one full train (5,000 m³/
day) with LG NanoH₂O™ TFN RO membranes to improve performance in permeate quality, permeability and energy
consumption. Additionally, LG NanoH₂O™ membranes were installed in two containerized plants, increasing the
overall capacity of this site to 12,000 m³/day.

Pilot Study
In early 2020, the plant ran a pilot study to test the 2nd generation of LG NanoH2O™ SWRO membrane model LG
SW 400 R G2 with salt rejection up to 99.88%. This model was evaluated and compared with the first-generation TFN
membranes, which feature a salt rejection specification of up to 99.85%. The pilot ran for over 15 months. Figure 1
illustrates the membrane configuration from the train and the pilot, and Table 1 lists the RO system configurations
from the first and second-generation SWRO models.

Results
LG SW 440 R G2 solution delivered an improved permeate water quality with a lower energy consumption compared
with the 1st generation of TFN RO membranes.