A Software Tool for the Optimization of Groundwater-sourced Drinking Water Production Systems with Partial Raw Water RO/CCRO Treatment

Novel more efficient membrane treatments such as Closed-Circuit Reverse Osmosis (CCRO) present a significant opportunity for the reduction of water loss to discarded concentrate in Urban Water Production Systems (UWPSs) that rely on reverse osmosis (RO) technology for groundwater decontamination. The optimization of system operation strategies including flexible demand-based scheduling of daily well shutdown periods of at least 4 hours, mandatory in groundwater abstraction permitting requirements in São Paulo state, offer additional opportunities for the reduction of raw water requirements. In this study we present a user-friendly and mathematically rigorous tool to enable optimized design and operation of UWPSs that rely on contaminated groundwater sources and employ RO-based decontamination technologies.