Patent ID: 7910004

Claim:
A monitoring system for monitoring membrane scaling in a reverse osmosis (RO) unit having an RO membrane, wherein the RO unit receives a feed stream and discharges a concentrate stream, the monitoring system comprising: a monitoring cell having a visually-observable RO membrane, the monitoring cell being configured and arranged relative to the RO unit so as to receive a sample stream from either the feed stream or the concentrate stream of the RO unit and to pass the sample stream across a surface of the visually-observable RO membrane, whereby solutes in the sample stream are deposited on the membrane surface; an imaging system configured and located relative to the monitoring cell so as to be operable to (a) capture an image of the surface of the visually-observable RO membrane, and (b) create an image data signal indicative of the captured image; a light source configured and located relative to the monitoring cell so as to direct light along a first direction; a reflecting arrangement in the monitoring cell and configured and located relative to the surface of the visually-observable RO membrane so as to direct the light from the light source across at least a portion of the surface of the visually-observable RO membrane and along a different, second direction substantially parallel to the surface of the visually-observable RO membrane to provide dark field illumination thereof, and then to direct the light into the imaging system, wherein the light from the reflecting arrangement is directed along the second direction and is sufficiently closely spaced to the surface of the visually-observable RO membrane so as to pass through or be reflected by scaling on the visually-observable RO membrane; and a data processing system operatively linked to the imaging system so as to receive the image data signal therefrom, the data processing system being operable to analyze the image data signal so as to provide an indication of the extent of scaling on the visually-observable RO membrane.