Which commercial modeling package is NOT used to simulate a reverse osmosis plant?

• A. WAVE
• B. WaterCAD
• C. ROSA
• D. IMSDesign

Answer: (B)

Understanding how RO plant modeling fits with software tools helps you pick the right one. WaterCAD is built for hydraulic modeling of water distribution networks—pipes, pumps, valves, and pressures in a city or treatment system. It focuses on how water flows through a network and the resulting pressures and flows, not on the detailed process physics of membrane systems, such as permeate flux, recovery, salt passage, pretreatment interactions, fouling, or energy recovery in RO trains. Those membrane-process details require process simulators that tailor models to RO equipment and membranes.

The other tools are designed with reverse osmosis or membrane-based treatment in mind, offering modules to simulate membrane performance, recovery scenarios, energy use, and related design or optimization aspects. That makes WaterCAD the tool that is not typically used to simulate a reverse osmosis plant.