A cost comparison of potable water softening technologies

Advances in membrane technology have yielded ultra low pressure reverse osmosis (ULPRO) systems as a potential water softening process. In order to establish the relative economic performance of such systems, they are compared directly with a number of alternative softening techniques through two case studies based on groundwater sites. Results suggest that although RO systems may not be the most cost effective for unblended peak load operation, they are likely to out perform alternative techniques for base load operation, and for base and peak load operations where high blending ratios are possible.