In reverse osmosis seawater treatment process, membrane fouling can be mitigated by degrading organic pollutants present in the feed seawater. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of employing solar photocatalysis using TiO₂/ZnO/H₂O₂ to pretreat reverse osmosis (RO) feed seawater under solar irradiation. Process optimisation and performance evaluation were undertaken using response surface methodology-desirability function and RSM integrated with genetic algorithm (RSM-GA). Statistical analysis was performed to determine the interactive relationships and main effects of input factors such as TiO₂ dosage, H₂O₂ dosage, pH, reaction time and ZnO dosage. The performance evaluation was determined in terms of percentage removal of total organic carbon (TOC) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The obtained optimum values using RSM-GA evaluation for TOC and COD removal were found to be 76.5% and 63.9%, respectively. The predicted RSM-GA results correspond well with the experimental results (TOC removal = 73.3%, COD removal = 61.2%). Utilization of renewable solar energy coupled with optimum utilisation of nanophotocatalysts enables this technique to be a unique treatment process for RO pretreatment of seawater and membrane fouling mitigation.

在反渗透海水处理过程中，可通过降解进料海水中存在的有机污染物来减轻膜污染。本研究评估了采用TiO ₂ / ZnO / H ₂ O _2的太阳光催化预处理太阳辐射下的反渗透（RO）进料海水的有效性。使用响应面方法-合意函数和集成遗传算法的RSM（RSM-GA）进行了工艺优化和性能评估。进行统计分析以确定诸如TiO ₂剂量，H ₂ O ₂等输入因素的相互作用关系和主要影响。用量，pH，反应时间和ZnO用量。根据总有机碳的去除率（TOC）和化学需氧量（COD）来确定性能评估。使用RSM-GA评估获得的最佳TOC和COD去除最佳值分别为76.5％和63.9％。预测的RSM-GA结果与实验结果非常吻合（TOC去除率= 73.3％，COD去除率= 61.2％）。可再生太阳能的利用与纳米光催化剂的最佳利用相结合，使该技术成为RO预处理海水和减轻膜污染的独特处理工艺。