ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Membr. Sci. Technol.
Sec. Membrane Modules and Processes
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frmst.2025.1619459
This article is part of the Research TopicRevolutionizing liquid processing with smart membrane technologies: Automation, AI, and sustainabilityView all articles
Economic Assessment of Real-Time Biofouling Monitoring Using SpectroMarine in a 100,000 m³/day SWRO Plant in the Gulf Region
Provisionally accepted
- The Water Technology Innovation and Research Development Institute (WTIIRA), Jubail, Saudi Arabia
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Word count: 170 Biofouling is a significant operational challenge in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination, particularly in biologically active environments like the Arabian Gulf. This study assesses the operational and economic impacts of implementing SpectroMarine, an autonomous real-time monitoring system, in a 100,000 m³/day SWRO facility. SpectroMarine leverages in-situ fluorescence and UV-visible absorbance measurements to detect early-stage biological activity in feedwater, enabling predictive maintenance and proactive fouling control. An economic model was constructed using literature-based operational baselines, including membrane lifespan, cleaning frequency, specific energy consumption, chemical dosing, and downtime. Implementation of SpectroMarine is projected to reduce energy consumption by 3%, cleaning-in-place (CIP) frequency by 50%, membrane replacement costs by 20%, and pretreatment chemical usage by 25%. Furthermore, unplanned downtime may be reduced by up to 50%. The model estimates annual savings of approximately 2.89 million SAR, with a payback period of less than two months under Gulf-specific operating conditions. The presented results are based on a literature-derived economic model incorporating sensitivity analysis, and no site-specific field validation has been conducted at this stage.
Keywords: SWRO, Biofouling, SpectroMarine, Real-time monitoring, Membrane desalination, economic analysis, predictive cleaning, Arabian Gulf
Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ahmed, Alghamdi and Ahmed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amr Mohamed Ahmed, amahmoud4@swcc.gov.sa
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