I saw an RO setup once on a ...

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I saw an RO setup once on a cooling tower, reducing the need for blow down, thereby reducing the need for make up.  Cool proof on concept.  Largely cost prohibitive due to pre-filtration requirements on an RO. I wonder if it will ever catch on?

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Just for the reasons you mentioned, it is a non-starter when applied to cooling tower blow-down.  IDE has put forth their new Pulse Flow RO technology with downstream thermal crystallization unit reactor, with recycled brine semi-batch process, allowing up to 98% recovery of brackish water.  This would produce a very near ideal stream for cooling tower water, but it still is too costly for cooling tower operation.  It would make more sense maybe if dry-wet cooling hybrid is used, thereby reducing the size of the air-cooled condenser, and also reducing the size of the wet section, and the amount of water evaporated to arrive at the same condenser vacuum at the steam turbine.  Apparently, pulse flow minimizes the ability of bacteria to reproduce in the membranes, and also increases cross-flow velocity down to the membrane surface during the brine pulse, thus reducing concentration polarization scale potential.

Membrane capacitive deionization could also be added to a system such as this to allow an even lower energy cost per volume water desalted.

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James - would you mind providing some links that explain how this tech works - like the thermal crystallization unit you mentioned. 

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