Domestic wastewater treatment by reverse osmosis

Summary

Possible treatment of domestic wastewater by the reverse osmosis with the purpose of producing high-quality effluent suitable for the discharge into fishery water bodies or for the use as process water has been investigated. Possible recycling of reject water from a reverse osmosis unit by drastically reducing the flow rate to the value less than 0.5–1% of the incoming flow and removing the reject water as a moisture component of the dewatered sludge is presented. Experiments have been carried out to determine the change in the concentration of dissolved solids in the filtrate of the membrane apparatus and a decrease in the membrane capacity in the process of wastewater treatment and reject water flow reduction. The obtained dependencies allow to determine the following: the required flow rate of the reject water depending on the concentration of suspended solids and COD; the required filtrate yield depending on the concentration of ammonium in raw wastewater. The methodology for determining the surface area of membranes and the number of membrane apparatus at each stage of wastewater treatment is described. The optimal values of working pressure, economic indicators of the unit in comparison with other wastewater treatment technologies were determined.

Key words

reverse osmosis , concentrate utilization , domestic wastewater , reduction of reject water flow , apparatus with an open channel , membrane selectivity