Available online www.jocpr.com Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 2016, 8(4):119-129 Research Article ISSN : 0975-7384 CODEN(USA) : JCPRC5 119 Performances analysis of the reverse osmosis desalination plant of brackish water used for drinking water: Tagounite, Morocco A. Lachheb 1 , S. Belhamidi 1 , N. Zouhri 1 , Y. A. Idrissi 1 , M. Hafsi 2 , M. Taky 1 , M. El Amrani 1 and A. Elmidaoui 1 1 Laboratory of Separation Processes, Department of Chemistry, University Ibn Tofail Kenitra, Morocco BP 1246 Kenitra 2 Office National of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), Rabat, Morocco _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT This paper is concerning the performance evaluation of small size brackish water reverse osmosis desalination units. The plant consists of a brackish water intake, pretreatment, two stages of reverse osmosis membranes in two lines, post-treatment and product water storage tank, nominal capacity of 252 m3/d of drink water. In this study, some important design factors and operating conditions are reviewed and the plant operating data are used to evaluate the unit performances. Keywords: Brackish water; Reverse osmosis; Desalination; Drinking water; Performance. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Water, a limited finite resource, vital for the very existence of life on earth and a necessity for economic and social development and for environmental sustainability, is becoming a scarce commodity. This is caused by the population growth, the change of lifestyle, water pollution, inefficient use of water and climatic changes with more frequent extreme events such as droughts and floods. Where the availability of water cannot be increased by using conventional resources or by recycling or cannot be made available by demand management methods, the desalination of sea or brackish water offers an alternative solution [1-2-3]. The desalination of water has been practiced since ancient times but was not widely used due to technological limitations, the prohibitive high capital costs, high energy consumption and finally very high unit cost when compared to conventional water [4-5]. New technological advances in the last 30 years tremendously reduced the capital cost and the energy consumption so that desalination projects can be considered as alternative solutions to water development. The southern provinces of Morocco are suffering from water shortage .This is due to the population growth and climate changes. However, some areas in Zagora province have brackish water with significant water resources to mobilize after recovery operations, with salinity from 3 to 6g/l. The National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) completed the installation of a demineralization plant by Reverse Osmosis in Tagounite, 60 km south of Zagora, with a salinity of 4 g/l. This study focuses on presenting this installation and evaluating its performances. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION 2.1. Raw Water Characterization The raw water, captured via a well catchment system and driven to the desalination plant of Tagounite, has the following average physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics which are typical of water of well and are summarized in Table 1.