🔍 Key Concepts

• Reverse osmosis (RO) system design and how pressure and flow affect salt rejection and production rate • Differences between series and parallel piping for filters or membranes in fluid systems • Why RO plants on ships might need both high pressure across each membrane and sufficient total throughput

💭 Think About

• If membranes are piped only in series, what happens to the pressure and salinity of the feed as it passes through each stage? How would that affect later membranes? • If membranes are piped only in parallel, what does each membrane see in terms of pressure and salinity, and how does that affect overall recovery and efficiency? • On a ship that needs both capacity and good salt removal, would designers sometimes balance pressure drop and flow by mixing different connection methods?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify how series connection affects: feed pressure at each stage, recovery rate, and product quality • Verify how parallel connection affects: total flow capacity and uniformity of feed conditions to each membrane • Consider whether commercial/shipboard RO plants often use staged (multi-pass) arrangements to improve performance, and what piping pattern that implies