6533b837fe1ef96bd12a2601

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Consensus based distributed estimation of biomass concentration in reverse osmosis membranes

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The correct estimation of biofilm formation in industrial environments, such as reverse osmosis plants, has become a topic of great interest. The occurrence of this natural process is the cause of huge economic losses due to a decrease of performance and maintenance costs in these plants. Current solutions based on water pretreatment or the dozing of biocides are not effective due to the lack of information about the state of the biofilm in the water system. In this work, we propose the use of a wireless sensor network that, based on the measurement of the biofilm thickness growth at the substratum of each sensor, estimates the biomass concentration within the biofilm, and, eventually, the thickness of the biofilm in the RO membrane. Our solution is performed in a total distributed fashion such that the information does not need to be routed to any central entity, reducing infrastructure costs and endowing the solution robustness against central entities failures.