The HEROTM process consists of several proven pre-treatment steps in combination with reverse osmosis units that operate at high pH levels.
In order to operate the reverse osmosis unit at a high pH, all the hardness and other cationic species in the brine that causes scaling should be removed first. The suspended solids should also be reduced to near zero in order to minimise plugging (Kepke, n.d).
The VSEP membrane process would decrease the amount of concentrate needed to be disposed off, like the previous two processes. However an ultimate disposal mechanism would still be required to completely dispose of the brine, like all the other membrane processes (Kepke, n.d.).
