Likely the issue is, with a large RO plant you hire people for the specific domain knowledge and develop a work culture around it. For a place like an oil rig none of this specific domain knowledge is central to the work at hand. So the technology isn't reliable in that context.
Exactly. It was a small scale system and the rig mechanic or whoever was supposed to do it as one of their 100 or so responsibilities so it often wasn't done. It was also pretty much a V1 system so it was just very sensitive.
To set some context that people here might appreciate, there wasn't a single computer or data link to offshore drilling rigs at that time. We were just starting to play with radio modem links.
I suppose it's probably something along those lines or the fact that the end product doesn't(to my knowledge) reflect the RO unit working correctly. With pharma they need RO to feed to WFI to use to make the drugs or do their research and it needs to work every day. Still seems like a simple RO system with a basic PLC would work fine on a ship to supply drinking water.
