Production of process water using integrated membrane processes

2006 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Karakulski ◽  
M. Gryta ◽  
M. Sasim
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Industrial Effluents ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Process Water ◽  
Feed Water ◽  
Reverse Osmosis Membrane ◽  
Permeate Flux ◽  
Membrane Processes

AbstractApplication of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, and integrated membrane processes for the preparation of process water from natural water or industrial effluents was investigated. A two-stage reverse osmosis plant enabled almost complete removal of solutes from the feed water. High-purity water was prepared using the membrane distillation. However, during this process a rapid membrane fouling and permeate flux decline was observed when the tap water was used as a feed. The precipitation of deposit in the modules was limited by the separation of sparingly soluble salts from the feed water in the nanofiltration. The combined reverse osmosis—membrane distillation process prevented the formation of salt deposits on the membranes employed for the membrane distillation. Ultrafiltration was found to be very effective removing trace amounts of oil from the feed water. Then the ultrafiltration permeate was used for feeding of the remaining membrane modules resulting in the total removal of oil residue contamination. The ultrafiltration allowed producing process water directly from the industrial effluents containing petroleum derivatives.

Concentrating primary reverse osmosis concentrate by direct contact membrane distillation

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Qu ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Deyin Hou ◽  
Zhaokun Luan ◽  
Baoqiang Wang
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Feed Water ◽  
Membrane Process ◽  
Direct Contact Membrane Distillation ◽  
Thermally Driven ◽  
Module Efficiency

In the present work, a thermally driven membrane process-direct contact membrane distillation was investigated for concentrating the primary reverse osmosis concentrate to minimize the water loss. The primary reverse osmosis concentrate used in the work was obtained from the RO process of the direct drinking water preparation system designed for the 29th Olympic Games with 50% recovery. The feed water was Beijing tap water. Membrane fouling during the DCMD process was discussed, and acidification and accelerated precipitation softening was used as the pretreatment method to control the calcium scaling. Experimental results showed that acidification can alleviate and even eliminate CaCO3 scaling, but CaSO4 crystallization still occurred and led to a sharp decline of module efficiency. Accelerated precipitation softening enabled a high removal efficiency of Ca2 + , so both the CaCO3 and CaSO4 scaling was efficiently controlled. After proper pretreatment to control calcium scaling, the primary reverse osmosis concentrate could be concentrated 40 times and then the whole recovery was enhanced to 98.8%.

scholarly journals A feasibility study on UV pretreatment for microfiltration and reverse osmosis membrane processes in wastewater reclamation

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-267
Author(s):  
Ho-Young Jeong ◽  
Yoon-Jin Kim ◽  
Ji-Hee Han ◽  
Dong-Ha Kim ◽  
Jinsik Sohn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Feed Water ◽  
Reverse Osmosis Membrane ◽  
Wastewater Reclamation ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Quality Water ◽  
Small Footprint

Wastewater reclamation is where wastewater from various sources is purified so the water can be used by human consumption. Among many treatment options, membranes have gained an important place in wastewater reclamation. It allows the production of high quality water from wastewater, with a small footprint and affordable energy consumption. Nevertheless, membrane fouling is regarded as a serious problem due to the high fouling potential of wastewater. In this study, we applied ultraviolet (UV) processes as a pretreatment for membrane systems that are used for wastewater reclamation. Low pressure UV (LUV) and pulsed UV (PUV) were used to decompose or alter the organics in the feed water of the membranes. Effluent organic matter was characterized by total organic carbon (TOC) and UV absorbance (UVA). Also the effect of UV pretreatment on membrane fouling was investigated for microfiltration (MF) and reverse osmosis (RO) processes. The pretreatment of membranes using LUV or PUV was effective to control fouling of hollow fiber MF membranes. This is probably because of the reduction and modification of organics after UV treatments. However, the effect of UV pretreatment on RO flux was less significant, which is attributed to low fouling prophecy after MF treatment.

Chemical pretreatment of feed water for membrane distillation

2008 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Gryta
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Membrane Surface ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Feed Water ◽  
Chemical Pretreatment ◽  
Permeate Flux ◽  
Membrane Scaling ◽  
Water Pretreatment ◽  
Energy Dispersion Spectrometry ◽  
Process Operation

AbstractMembrane distillation was used to produce demineralized water from ground water. The influence of feed water pretreatment carried out in a contact clarifier (softening with Ca(OH)2 and coagulation with FeSO4 · 7H2O) followed by filtration, on the process effectiveness was evaluated. It was found that the chemical pretreatment decreased the membrane fouling; however, the degree of water purification was insufficient because precipitation of small amounts of deposit on the membrane surface during the process operation was still observed. The permeate flux was gradually decreasing as a result of scaling. The morphology and composition of the fouling layer were studied using scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersion spectrometry. The presence of significant amounts of silica, apart from calcium and magnesium, was determined in the formed deposit. The removal of foulants by heterogeneous crystallization performed inside the filter (70 mesh), assembled directly at the module inlet, was found to be a solution preventing the membrane scaling.

scholarly journals Long-Running Comparison of Feed-Water Scaling in Membrane Distillation

Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rezaei ◽  
Albraa Alsaati ◽  
David M. Warsinger ◽  
Florian Hell ◽  
Wolfgang M. Samhaber
Keyword(s):  
Tap Water ◽  
Saturation Index ◽  
Membrane Surface ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Salt Crystallization ◽  
Feed Water ◽  
Water Recovery ◽  
Permeate Flux ◽  
Salt Scaling ◽  
Precipitous Decline

Membrane distillation (MD) has shown promise for concentrating a wide variety of brines, but the knowledge is limited on how different brines impact salt scaling, flux decline, and subsequent wetting. Furthermore, past studies have lacked critical details and analysis to enable a physical understanding, including the length of experiments, the inclusion of salt kinetics, impact of antiscalants, and variability between feed-water types. To address this gap, we examined the system performance, water recovery, scale formation, and saturation index of a lab-scale vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) in long-running test runs approaching 200 h. The tests provided a comparison of a variety of relevant feed solutions, including a synthetic seawater reverse osmosis brine with a salinity of 8.0 g/L, tap water, and NaCl, and included an antiscalant. Saturation modeling indicated that calcite and aragonite were the main foulants contributing to permeate flux reduction. The longer operation times than typical studies revealed several insights. First, scaling could reduce permeate flux dramatically, seen here as 49% for the synthetic brine, when reaching a high recovery ratio of 91%. Second, salt crystallization on the membrane surface could have a long-delayed but subsequently significant impact, as the permeate flux experienced a precipitous decline only after 72 h of continuous operation. Several scaling-resistant impacts were observed as well. Although use of an antiscalant did not reduce the decrease in flux, it extended membrane operational time before surface foulants caused membrane wetting. Additionally, numerous calcium, magnesium, and carbonate salts, as well as silica, reached very high saturation indices (>1). Despite this, scaling without wetting was often observed, and scaling was consistently reversible and easily washed. Under heavy scaling conditions, many areas lacked deposits, which enabled continued operation; existing MD performance models lack this effect by assuming uniform layers. This work implies that longer times are needed for MD fouling experiments, and provides further scaling-resistant evidence for MD.

scholarly journals Membrane cleaning in membrane distillation of reverse osmosis concentrate generated in landfill leachate treatment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolin Jia ◽  
Kuiling Li ◽  
Baoqiang Wang ◽  
ZhiChao Zhao ◽  
Deyin Hou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Landfill Leachate ◽  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Water Recovery ◽  
Permeate Flux ◽  
Chemical Cleaning ◽  
Leachate Treatment ◽  
Membrane Cleaning ◽  
Cleaning Methods

Abstract As a thermally induced membrane separation process, membrane distillation (MD) has drawn more and more attention for the advantages of treating hypersaline wastewaters, especially the concentrate from reverse osmosis (RO) process. One of the major obstacles in widespread MD application is the membrane fouling. We investigated the feasibility of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) for landfill leachate reverse osmosis concentrate (LFLRO) brine treatment and systematically assessed the efficiency of chemical cleaning for DCMD after processing LFLRO brine. The results showed that 80% water recovery rate was achieved when processing the LFLRO brine by DCMD, but the membrane fouling occurred during the DCMD process, and manifested as the decreasing of permeate flux and the increasing of permeate conductivity. Analysis revealed that the serious flux reduction was primarily caused by the fouling layer that consist of organic matters and inorganic salts. Five cleaning methods were investigated for membrane cleaning, including hydrogen chloride (HCl)-sodium hydroxide (NaOH), ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)-NaOH, critic acid, sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) cleaning. Among the chemical cleaning methods investigated, the 3 wt.% SDS cleaning showed the best efficiency at recovering the performance of fouled membranes.

scholarly journals Electrospun Nanostructured Membrane Engineering Using Reverse Osmosis Recycled Modules: Membrane Distillation Application

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1601
Author(s):  
Jorge Contreras-Martínez ◽  
Carmen García-Payo ◽  
Mohamed Khayet
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Polyvinylidene Fluoride ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Permeate Flux ◽  
Electrospinning Technique ◽  
Salt Rejection ◽  
Rejection Factor ◽  
Nanofibrous Membranes ◽  
Membrane Engineering ◽  
Desalination Plants

As a consequence of the increase in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants, the number of discarded RO modules for 2020 was estimated to be 14.8 million annually. Currently, these discarded modules are disposed of in nearby landfills generating high volumes of waste. In order to extend their useful life, in this research study, we propose recycling and reusing the internal components of the discarded RO modules, membranes and spacers, in membrane engineering for membrane distillation (MD) technology. After passive cleaning with a sodium hypochlorite aqueous solution, these recycled components were reused as support for polyvinylidene fluoride nanofibrous membranes prepared by electrospinning technique. The prepared membranes were characterized by different techniques and, finally, tested in desalination of high saline solutions (brines) by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The effect of the electrospinning time, which is the same as the thickness of the nanofibrous layer, was studied in order to optimize the permeate flux together with the salt rejection factor and to obtain robust membranes with stable DCMD desalination performance. When the recycled RO membrane or the permeate spacer were used as supports with 60 min electrospinning time, good permeate fluxes were achieved, 43.2 and 18.1 kg m−2 h−1, respectively; with very high salt rejection factors, greater than 99.99%. These results are reasonably competitive compared to other supported and unsupported MD nanofibrous membranes. In contrast, when using the feed spacer as support, inhomogeneous structures were observed on the electrospun nanofibrous layer due to the special characteristics of this spacer resulting in low salt rejection factors and mechanical properties of the electrospun nanofibrous membrane.

scholarly journals Organic Fouling Impact in a Direct Contact Membrane Distillation System Treating Wastewater: Experimental Observations and Modeling Approach

Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 493
Author(s):  
Amine Charfi ◽  
Fida Tibi ◽  
Jeonghwan Kim ◽  
Jin Hur ◽  
Jinwoo Cho
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Feed Solution ◽  
Membrane Distillation ◽  
Mixed Solution ◽  
Permeate Flux ◽  
Direct Contact Membrane Distillation ◽  
Organic Fouling ◽  
Specific Cake Resistance

This study aims to investigate the effect of operational conditions on organic fouling occurring in a direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system used to treat wastewater. A mixed solution of sodium alginate (SA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a feed solution to simulate polysaccharides and proteins, respectively, assumed as the main organic foulants. The permeate flux was observed at two feed temperatures 35 and 50 °C, as well as three feed solution pH 4, 6, and 8. Higher permeate flux was observed for higher feed temperature, which allows higher vapor pressure. At higher pH, a smaller particle size was detected with lower permeate flux. A mathematical model based on mass balance was developed to simulate permeate flux with time by assuming (i) the cake formation controlled by attachment and detachment of foulant materials and (ii) the increase in specific cake resistance, the function of the cake porosity, as the main mechanisms controlling membrane fouling to investigate the fouling mechanism responsible of permeate flux decline. The model fitted well with the experimental data with R2 superior to 0.9. High specific cake resistance fostered by small particle size would be responsible for the low permeate flux observed at pH 8.

Technical and economical evaluation of water recycling in the carwash industry with membrane processes

2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1131-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Boussu ◽  
G. Van Baelen ◽  
W. Colen ◽  
D. Eelen ◽  
S. Vanassche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
Optimal Choice ◽  
Water Recycling ◽  
Membrane Processes ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Membrane Type ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right

In the carwash industry, water recycling is necessary to be in accordance with present and upcoming environmental laws. As this is not possible with traditional techniques, membrane processes (like ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)) are technically and economically evaluated in this study. Concerning the technical part, there needs to be a compromise between a high permeate permeability on the one hand and a high permeate purity on the other hand. Depending on the use of the purified wastewater, ultrafiltration (to recycle wastewater in the main wash cycle) or nanofiltration (to recycle wastewater in the rinsing step) would be the optimal choice. Concerning the financial part, the implementation of membrane processes in the wastewater purification installation is economically feasible, especially when expensive tap water is used as pure water. These positive evaluations imply that membrane processes can be useful to recycle wastewater in the carwash industry, on condition that the right membrane type (with the least membrane fouling) and the right process format (e.g., hybrid process of UF and/or NF with a biological treatment) is selected.

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