In this article, we will discuss why FRP membrane Housing is more preferred than PVC membrane housing and Stainless steel membrane housing.
Why is FRP membrane housing preferred more than PVC membrane housing and Stainless steel?
Membrane housing is nothing but a pressure vessel, and it is used for loading membrane elements for water purification / liquid process in the reverse osmosis process. There are three different types of membrane housings available with different materials for water treatment available in the market. They are FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic), stainless steel, and PVC. Presently for more reverse osmosis water treatment systems, FRP membrane housing is the best preferable option. Everyone shows interest in choosing this FRP membrane housing because of the best design size, pressure bearing capacity, material properties, rust-free, and operating temperature compared to PVC membrane shells and stainless steel.
The following are some of the reasons why FRP membrane Housing is good or preferred more than PVC membrane shells and stainless steel:
Very High-Pressure Capacity:
As everyone knows, the reverse osmosis system depends on pressure to purify water or concentrate water. This membrane housing is nothing but a vessel that usually bears lots of pressure. In the process of reverse osmosis, the very high the concentration of raw water, the greater the pressure is required to apply.
The following table shows the pressure range comparisons for FRP membrane housing over stainless steel membrane housing and PVC membrane housing. The FRP membrane housing contains a very high pressure capacity than stainless steel membrane housing and PVC membrane housing. It seems to be one of the factors “why FRP membrane housing is preferred mainly or good for water treatment systems than PVC membrane housing and stainless steel membrane housing?”.
| Type of Membrane housing | FRP Membrane Housing | Stainless Steel Membrane Housing | PVC Membrane Housing |
| Pressure | 150–1500 psi | ≤ 600 psi | ≤ 200 psi |
Huge Design Size:
Large in terms of the size and quantity for membrane elements, then the huge the water yield and the very high working efficiency of the reverse osmosis system. The very common reverse osmosis membrane elements contain 2.5″, 4″,8” and 16″ diameters. The following table shows the design sizes comparisons for FRP membrane housing than stainless steel membrane housing and PVC membrane housing. Both stainless steel membrane housing and FRP membrane housing are used to load membrane elements, and the FRP membrane housing is designed for very long and loads more membrane elements. So many big-scale water purification projects mostly prefer FRP membrane housings compared to stainless steel membrane housing and PVC membrane housing.
| Diameter | Length | FRP Membrane Housing | Stainless Steel Membrane Housing | PVC Membrane Housing |
| 2.5” | 14”/21”/40” | 1/1/1 | 1/1/1 | 1/1/1 |
| 4” | 40” | 1–6 | 1–3 | 1–3 |
| 8” | 40” | 1–8 | 1–3 | 1–3 |
| 16” | 40” | 1-6 | 1-2 | 1-2 |
Robust material property:
FRP membrane housing is prepared with very strong materials for corrosion-free chemical resistance and greater mechanism strength. Substances produced by any membrane housing corrosion are important sources of RO membrane contaminants, and water purifying projects tend to be very long-term. Therefore, the corrosion-resistant performance and service life of the membrane housing are very important. FRP is very high in resistance to all chemical solvents, and it has a very long service life. It is hardly ageing. So FRP membrane housing is preferred for almost all water purifying projects. The stainless steel membrane housing and PVC membrane housing are very difficult to resist corrosion, especially the chlorine-containing medium. Also, FRP membrane housing contains greater strength and very high impact resistance, making it difficult to damage during installation and transportation.
Broad operating temperature range:
FRP membrane housing, PVC membrane housing and stainless steel membrane housing all these membranes work at room temperature. But in some cold regions, only FRP membrane housing is preferred because the material properties used in the FRP membrane shell is affectless by low temperature. The stainless steel membrane housing and PVC membrane housing become so hard and brittle because of very low temperature, leads the membrane housing susceptible to damage and badly affects the service life of the membrane housing.
| Type of membrane | FRP Membrane Housing | Stainless Steel Membrane Housing | PVC Membrane Housing |
| Operating Temperature | -10 °C–49 °C | 0 °C–100 °C | 0 °C–40 °C |
Explore more details about here FRP Membrane Housing.
All the above properties make FRP membrane housing more preferable than PVC membrane housing and stainless steel membrane housing.
