Predictive Modeling of Brackish Surface Water Quality for Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plants Using Advanced Machine Learning Techniques

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Cherki Lahlou
Belaid Bouikhalene
Jamaa Bengourram
Hassan Latrache
Radouane El Amri

摘要

Artificial intelligence (AI) has proven highly effective in optimizing water treatment processes, particularly for monitoring reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants treating brackish surface water. These systems face complex, non-linear variations in feed water quality, making real-time monitoring crucial to avoid performance loss and membrane fouling. This study presents a machine learning (ML)–based framework to predict the water quality index (WQI) and enable rapid decision-making by classifying water quality (WQC) into four actionable categories: Excellent, Good, Poor, and Unsuitable. Using 11 key water quality parameters, the model provides an efficient and reliable approach for prediction and classification. Among tested algorithms, the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) achieved the best WQI prediction performance, with an R2 of 98.19%, a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.0182, and a mean squared error (MSE) of 0.0043. For WQC, the XGBoost algorithm outperformed others, reaching 99.84% accuracy. The results demonstrate the strong potential of ML techniques to enhance water quality monitoring and management in RO desalination plants, supporting efficient operation and timely intervention.

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栏目
Engineering

参考

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