Andreas Dalli, a final year mechanical engineering student at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (Mcast), has developed a model that ensures that chemicals used to produce water by means of reverse osmosis plants are neither wasted nor allowed to harm the environment. The model was developed as part of his undergraduate research project that focused on the study and optimisation in the automation of sea water reverse osmosis plants.

ProMinent Fluid Controls Ltd, the local manufacturing subsidiary of ProMinent, a leading global supplier and solution provider in water treatment and chemical fluid handling systems, donated key components used to set up the control system of the research work.

Dalli said the main challenges he faced were designing the system using appropriate software, and creating the algorithm that converted a number of inputs into appropriate outputs to ensure that the water quality supplied by the RO plant was optimal. He stressed that without the equipment provided by Prominent and Mcast, his project would not have been possible.

This project was conducted under the supervision of senior lecturer Claire Seguna and Ray Vassallo, director of Mcast’s Institute of Engineering and Transport.