Water recovery from treated urban wastewater by ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis for landscape irrigation

Techno-economic feasibility of water recovery from secondary effluents of an urban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) for landscape irrigation was investigated considering two distinctive strategies: ultrafiltration (UF)/chlorination and UF/reverse osmosis (RO). Experimental performance evaluations were conducted separately for UF membranes and for different RO trans-membrane pressures. The quality of the effluent recovered by the UF/RO system was in accordance with the national and international guidelines. The produced reuse water was first class quality according to the national guideline for all parameters except sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), which can be eliminated readily by direct addition of KCl into the recovered water. Estimated field-scale costs indicated that UF/RO yielded a total cost of US$12,500,000–13,600,000 with annual operating cost being US$482,000–533,000 at 5–20 bar. The economic estimations guaranteed reimbursement with US$7,600,000–7,400,000 net present value, 0.22–0.39 year payback time, US$0.44–0.49/m³ treatment cost, and a benefit/cost ratio of 0.57.     

Water Management In Textile Industry: Technical And Economic Aspects

Textile industry is an intensive water use sector. Consequently, enormous quantities of wastewater are generated from different manufacturing processes. Numerous opportunities for water reuse could be exploited by rational management of water use and reuse via segregation and upgrading of specific effluents using membrane filtration systems comprising ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO). This paper is an endeavor to develop technoeconomic indicators for extended water reuse applications in textile industry using UF and RO. Extensive data gathered from a typical Egyptian dye house have been utilized to rationalize water use and reuse management based on different levels of pollutants in waste streams. A developed rationale enabled the identification of four applicable intervention scenarios comprising three reuse scenarios ranging from limited reuse (about 25%) to maximum reuse (about 87%) and a total end of the pipe treatment scenario. The financial assessment for a typical wastewater load (about 3500 r m/day) reveals that the maximum reuse scenario comprising UF, two stage RO in addition to direct use and low press RO is the most preferred one. Further, sensitivity analysis indicates that the annual cost of the total end of pipe treatment scenario will equal the annual cost of the maximum reuse scenario when the unit cost are US$ 0.5, 0.43 and 0.3 per cubic meter for wastewater treatment, RO and UF respectively.     

Combined coagulation-disk filtration process as a pretreatment of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membrane for wastewater reclamation: an autopsy study of a pilot plant

The effects of the combined coagulation-disk filtration (CC-DF) process on the fouling characteristics and behavior caused by interactions between effluent organic matter (EfOM) and the membrane surfaces of the ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in a pilot plant for municipal wastewater reclamation (MWR) were investigated. The feed water from secondary effluents was treated by the CC-DF process used as a pretreatment for the UF membrane to mitigate fouling formation and the permeate from the CC-DF process was further filtered by two UF membrane units in parallel arrangement and fed into four RO modules in a series connection. The CC-DF process was not sufficient to mitigate biofouling but the UF membrane was effective in mitigating biofouling on the RO membrane surfaces. Fouling of the UF and RO membranes was dominated by hydrophilic fractions of EfOM (e.g., polysaccharide-like and protein-like substances) and inorganic scaling (e.g., aluminum, calcium and silica). The desorbed UF membrane foulants included more aluminum species and hydrophobic fractions than the desorbed RO membrane foulants, which was presumably due to the residual coagulants and aluminum-humic substance complexes. The significant change in the surface chemistry of the RO membrane (a decrease in surface charge and an increase in contact angle of the fouled RO membranes) induced by the accumulation of hydrophilic EfOM onto the negatively charged RO membrane surface intensified the fouling formation of the fouled RO membrane by hydrophobic interaction between the humic substances of EfOM with relatively high hydrophobicity and the fouled RO membranes with decreased surface charge and increased contract angle.     

高矿化度矿井废水深度处理及应用

同煤集团马脊梁煤矿的矿井废水处理工程采用预处理/双膜法工艺,出水水质达到饮用水标准,其运行成本为3.99元/m~3.对矿井废水进行回收再利用在水资源严重匮乏的矿区具有一定的推广价值.     

双膜法在市政污水处理厂的应用

天津市某污水处理厂再生水回用工程采用双膜法工艺,近期设计规模为2.0×10^4m^3/d,本文介绍了其工艺流程、设备配置情况、工程设计参数等.运行结果表明,采用双膜法对废水进行处理后出水水质良好,可以达到回用标准,其中超滤出水浊度为0.01～0.04 NTU,反渗透产水电导率＜ 15 μs/cm,脱盐率大于99％.经济性分析结果显示,该双膜法再生水回用工程的吨水运行成本为1.584元,具有良好的经济及环境效益.     

Viability of a low-pressure nanofilter in treating recycled water for water reuse applications: a pilot-scale study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of a low-pressure nanofiltration (NF) membrane for treating recycled water for indirect potable water reuse applications. In particular, the tradeoffs in choosing low-pressure NF over reverse osmosis (RO) were investigated including whether or not significantly lowering operating pressures/costs would result in diminished permeate water quality. A NF membrane (Dow/Filmtec NF-4040) with high permeate productivity was selected for pilot-scale testing over a period of 1200h at a water reuse facility employing conventional RO membranes for treating tertiary treated wastewater effluent prior to aquifer recharge. The novel application of an NF membrane in treating wastewater effluent for water reuse applications permitted a comprehensive screening of NF permeate water quality and allowed for the investigation of trace organic contaminant rejection on pilot scale with environmentally relevant feed water concentrations. Results from pilot-scale testing highlighted the selectivity of NF membranes in removing organic solutes present in wastewater effluents at the parts-per-trillion level. While operating pressures were by a factor of 2-3 lower than conventional RO membranes, and bulk and trace organic rejection generally exceeded 90 percent, not surprisingly, the rejection of monovalent ions such as nitrate was poor. The poor-to-moderate rejection of monovalent ions, however, resulted in lowered brine stream total dissolved solids concentration and sodium adsorption ratio as compared with the brine stream of conventional RO membranes, which may be beneficial for brine disposal strategies.     

淹没式固定床/物化/反渗透处理二级出水并回用

北方某大型化工企业以城市污水厂二级出水为原水建设了中水回用工程,采用了淹没式固定床／物化／反渗透深度处理组合工艺,介绍了该工艺的设计特点及参数。运行结果表明,处理系统的出水水质达到了企业对中水回用的水质要求,取得了良好的社会效益和经济效益。     

Treatability of organic fractions derived from secondary effluent by reverse osmosis membrane

Dissolved organic matters (DOMs) from two batches of secondary effluent collected from a local water reclamation plant were fractionated using column chromatographic method with non-ionic resins XAD-8, AG MP-50 and IRA-96. Seven isolated fractions were obtained from the fractionation study and these fractions were quantified using DOC, UV(254) and SUVA values. The fractionation study revealed that the secondary effluent samples comprised about 47.3-60.6% of hydrophobic and 39.4-52.7% of hydrophilic solutes. The treatability of each isolated fraction was investigated by subjecting each fraction to reverse osmosis (RO) treatment individually. It was noted that RO process could achieve high DOC rejections for acid and neutral fractions (ranging from 80% to 98% removal) probably due to the negative charge of RO membrane. The results obtained also indicated that hydrophobicity of DOMs is significant in determining treatability of organic species by RO process. The performance of RO in terms of DOC rejection of un-fractionated secondary effluent was also investigated to assess possible effects of interactions among organic fractions on their treatability by RO process. It was noted that DOC rejection associated with the un-fractionated secondary effluent was generally higher (ranging from 2% to 45%) than the corresponding rejection obtained from each individual fraction isolated from the secondary effluent. This finding suggested there is a beneficial interaction among the fractions that in turn has contributed towards a better overall DOC rejection performance by RO treatment.     

Biopolymer fouling in dead-end ultrafiltration of treated domestic wastewater

Ultrafiltration (UF) is considered as a suitable treatment process after conventional wastewater treatment to produce reuse water. Nevertheless, fouling affects the performance of UF to a large extent. As biopolymers (mostly macro polysaccharide-like and protein-like molecules) have been identified as major foulants affecting the filterability of water in dead-end UF, the present study focuses on investigating the reversibility of biopolymer fouling occurring at different biopolymer mass loads to the membrane and under different compression conditions. UF-membrane stirred cell tests using five cycles show that filtering treated domestic wastewater leads to a significant permeability reduction due to the accumulation of biopolymers on the membrane surface and/or in the membrane pores. Although they can be removed by hydraulic backwashing, an increased mass load of biopolymers reduces the removal efficiency. This correlation was verified using a UF pilot plant filtering treated wastewater (secondary effluent or slow sand filtrate). The effect of biopolymer fouling layer deformation on its reversibility was studied using multi-cycle membrane filtration tests under different filtration pressures. The results showed that higher filtration pressures result in more compact biopolymer fouling which is more difficult to be hydraulically backwashed. This phenomenon was also confirmed by pilot-scale UF experiments.     

Investigation on two integrated membrane systems for the reuse of electroplating wastewater

A pilot study was done on a nanofiltration (NF)‐reverse osmosis (RO) and RO‐NF integrated membrane system about the feasibility of membrane for electroplating rinse wastewater treatment in concentrate stage configuration. Nickel sulphate solution was used as a synthetic wastewater. Water recovery, metal rejection and specific entropy production (SEP) were investigated under different operation pressure, feed temperature and feed concentration. The results showed water recovery of RO‐NF system was more than 10% higher than NF‐RO system but the SEP was 14.47% lower than NF‐RO system. The detailed analysis on economic cost and environmental impact of two systems was conducted based on a certain operation condition. Results indicated that the cost of RO‐NF system was 0.46 $/m³, which was lower than NF‐RO system, and the prevention cost of RO‐NF system was 11.46% lower than NF‐RO system. Generally, RO‐NF system was better than NF‐RO system.     

Fouling characteristics of NF and RO operated for removal of dissolved matter from groundwater

A pilot study had been performed for about 6 months in order to investigate the removal efficiency of dissolved matter and its fouling potential during nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) of local groundwater that was pretreated with an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system. After pilot plant operation, autopsy tests were performed to identify the characteristics of foulants that were attached to the membrane surface. In the autopsy tests, the flux recovery for each specific cleaning scheme (hydraulic washing, acid cleaning, and alkaline cleaning) was also measured using a dead-end filtration cell unit. The washing solution used in each chemical cleaning was analyzed to identify major components of the foulants, and the membrane surface was observed using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Among three kinds of membranes tested, one NF and two RO membranes, the NF and RO1 membranes showed a rapid flux decline after 100 days of operation. Especially, the RO1 membrane showed the more serious flux decline than the NF membrane. The RO2 membrane, with the lowest recovery rate, demonstrated a gradual flux decline. The removal efficiency of dissolved inorganic matter (as conductivity) for each NF, RO1 and RO2 membrane was 76.3%, 88.2% and 95.3%, respectively. The removal of dissolved organic matter (as total organic carbon) was found to be about 80% for both NF and RO membranes used in this study. During the membrane autopsy tests, five sections of the fouled membrane were cut along each NF and RO membrane module from the feed inlet side to the concentrate outlet side, the specific flux for each membrane section was measured before and after each cleaning step. As expected, the degree of fouling was intensified along the membrane surface as the feed flow approached the outlet. Based on the analysis results of wash water used in each cleaning step, the major foulants attached to the membrane surface appeared to be Ca bound with inorganic matter and Si bound with organic matter. Fe seemed to be a great contributor to irreversible fouling. The SEM analysis indicated that the organic matter was forming the first fouling layer close to the membrane and that the inorganic matter was layered top of the organic fouling layer in a tetragonal shape. Any evidence of biofouling was not observed in this study because most of microorganisms had been already removed by the UF pretreatment.     

Evaluation of an MBR-RO system to produce high quality reuse water: microbial control, DBP formation and nitrate

A membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis (MBR-RO) system was developed to assess potential reuse applications of municipal wastewater. The objective of the study was to examine the water quality throughout the system with a focus on waterborne pathogens, disinfection by-products (DBPs) and nitrate. This paper will discuss the presence of these contaminants in MBR effluent and focus on their subsequent removal by RO. This study has shown that high quality reuse water can be produced from municipal wastewater through the use of an MBR-RO system. The water meets California Title 22 reuse regulations for non-potable applications and US EPA drinking water limits for trihalomethanes (THM) (80 microg/L), haloacetic acids (HAA) (60 microg/L), chlorite (1.0 mg/L), total coliform (not detectable), viruses (not detectable), and nitrate/nitrite (10 mg N/L). However, THM formation (182-689 microg/L) attributed to cleaning of the MBR with chlorine and incomplete removal by subsequent RO treatment resulted in reuse water with THM levels (40.2+/-19.9 microg/L) high enough to present a potential concern when considering drinking water applications. Nitrate levels of up to 3.6 mg N/L, which resulted from incomplete removal by the RO membrane, are also a potential concern. A denitrification step in the MBR should be considered in potable water applications.     

Effects of ozone and ozone/peroxide on trace organic contaminants and NDMA in drinking water and water reuse applications

An ozone and ozone/peroxide oxidation process was evaluated at pilot scale for trace organic contaminant (TOrC) mitigation and NDMA formation in both drinking water and water reuse applications. A reverse osmosis (RO) pilot was also evaluated as part of the water reuse treatment train. Ozone/peroxide showed lower electrical energy per order of removal (EEO) values for TOrCs in surface water treatment, but the addition of hydrogen peroxide increased EEO values during wastewater treatment. TOrC oxidation was correlated to changes in UV₂₅₄ absorbance and fluorescence offering a surrogate model for predicting contaminant removal. A decrease in N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) formation potential (after chloramination) was observed after treatment with ozone and ozone/peroxide. However, during spiking experiments with surface water, ozone/peroxide achieved limited destruction of NDMA, while in wastewaters net direct formation of NDMA of 6-33 ng/L was observed after either ozone or ozone/peroxide treatment. Once formed during ozonation, NDMA passed through the subsequent RO membranes, which highlights the significance of the potential for direct NDMA formation during oxidation in reuse applications.     

双膜法在防伪纸生产废水深度处理与回用中的应用

针对防伪纸厂废水处理站的二沉池出水,采用中试规模的连续膜过滤(CMF)/反渗透(RO)集成工艺进行深度处理,以期能够满足回用的要求.结果表明,超滤膜有较强的抗污染能力,其过滤出水浊度<0.5 NTU,SS值基本为零,SDI值<3,完全能够满足RO的进水要求;RO产水COD平均为1.7 mg/L,电导率为10 μS/cm,满足防伪纸生产工艺回用水质的要求.采用双膜法深度处理防伪纸生产废水并回用具有工程可行性.     

MBR和UF深度处理石化废水的比较研究

为给某石化企业的反渗透（RO）系统提供水质良好且稳定的进水，分别采用膜生物反应器（MBR）和超滤（UF）工艺对该厂二沉池出水进行了深度处理试验，考察了进、出水的浊度及COD、SDI等指标。结果表明：UF系统的出水浊度平均为0．18NTU，COD平均为22．1mg／L，SDI平均为2．50；MBR系统的出水浊度平均为0．14NTU，COD平均为20．1mg／L，SDI平均为2．22。MBR的出水水质比UF更稳定，且具有较强的耐冲击负荷能力。     

Distillery wastewater treatment by the membrane-based nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes

A hybrid nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) pilot plant was used to remove the color and contaminants of the distillery spent wash. The feasibility of the membranes for treating wastewater from the distillery industry by varying the feed pressure (0-70 bar) and feed concentration was tested on the separation performance of thin-film composite NF and RO membranes. Color removal by NF and a high rejection of 99.80% total dissolved solids (TDS), 99.90% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 99.99% of potassium was achieved from the RO runs, by retaining a significant flux as compared to pure water flux, which shows that membranes were not affected by fouling during wastewater run. The pollutant level in permeates were below the maximum contaminant level as per the guidelines of the World Health Organization and the Central Pollution Control Board specifications for effluent discharge (less than 1,000 ppm of TDS and 500 ppm of COD).     

混凝/砂滤结合GAC/UF法处理洗车废水的研究

采用混凝、沉淀-砂滤-GAC-UF工艺对洗车废水进行回用处理,结果表明该工艺的处理效果良好,出水水质可满足洗车水回用的水质要求。混凝、沉淀、砂滤预处理工艺对浊度、LAS和氨氮的去除效果较好,可大大减轻后续深度处理工艺的负荷,延缓GAC／UF反应器的堵塞进程;GAC单元对LAS的去除率〉70％,是整个系统去除LAS的主要单元;UF单元对浊度的去除率〉90％,是出水浊度的有效控制单元。采用该工艺处理洗车废水并回用,每年可节省费用约1．2万元,经济效益显著。     

GAC,UF,RO去除饮用水中氯仿,四氯化碳性能的试验研究

研究了粒状活性炭（ＧＡＣ）,超滤（ＵＦ）和反渗透（ＲＯ）对自来水中氯仿和四氯化碳的去除性能,探讨了ＧＡＣ对氯仿和四氯化碳去除的物理吸附和微生物降解机理。试验发现ＵＦ膜对氯仿和四氯化碳的快速吸附与脱附现象,并讨论了ＲＯ膜对不同浓度氯仿、四氯化碳的去除效果和作用机理。     

RO浓水回用的处理技术研究

根据现有反渗透(RO)工艺的运行管理经验,确定一级RO浓水的回收工艺仍为RO工艺,即二级RO工艺再处理一级RO浓水。通过对一级RO浓水水质的分析,提出了O3/BAC和粉末活性炭/GAC两种预处理工艺去除浓水中的有机物,两种工艺均可保证系统的出水COD30mg/L,满足RO膜对进水COD的要求。以NaOH为软化剂进行RO浓水的软化中试,在NaOH的投加量为400～440 mg/L、聚合氯化铝(PAC)的投加量为5 mg/L(在软化反应后期投加)、曝气量为0.1 m3/(h.m2)的条件下,软化装置对总硬度、COD、NH3-N的去除率分别约为80%、(7%～12%)、30%。     

Autopsy of high-pressure membranes to compare effectiveness of MF and UF pretreatment in water reclamation

A pilot-plant study was designed to compare the effectiveness of microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) as pretreatment for high-pressure membranes in reclamation of biologically treated wastewater effluent. Granular media, filtered secondary effluent from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant, was fed to MF and UF units that operated in parallel. Each of these filtrates served as the feedwater to two reverse osmosis (RO) units and one nanofiltration (NF) unit that operated in parallel. The decline in specific flux was substantially lower for high-pressure membranes receiving UF than MF pretreatment over the course of each of four pilot plant runs that lasted from 1 to 7 weeks. The removal of organic matter as measured by dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was somewhat higher by UF than MF pretreatment (about 15% by UF compared with 11% by MF). Addition of ferric chloride ahead of the UF unit, but not ahead of the MF unit, may account for this additional removal of organic matter. However, the additional DOC removal appeared insufficient to explain the differential in foulant accumulation between high-pressure membranes receiving UF and MF pretreatment. Extensive autopsy analyses of these high-pressure membranes showed from 35% to 56% less organic carbon on those receiving UF rather than MF pretreatment. A more specific indicator of a differential in organic fouling was the accumulation of polysaccharides and this showed from 27% to 38% less on UF- than on MF-pretreated membranes. Yet another possible source of foulants is inorganic material given that the inorganic and organic weight percentages were nearly equal (56% vs. 44%) on the membrane surface. One specific source was aluminum added for phosphorus removal. Less fouling of high-pressure membranes pretreated by UF than MF could be due to the following: (1) a small, but very important, colloidal fouling fraction may have passed through MF but was rejected by UF pretreatment; (2) organic fouling was not related to organics in either the MF or UF filtrates but rather to organics that are generated in situ by microbial activity on the membrane surface; and/or (3) less passage of colloidal Al-P that carried over from secondary wastewater treatment.