Treatment of tannery wastewater through the combination of a conventional activated sludge process and reverse osmosis with a plane membrane

Tannery wastewater contains high concentrations of organic matter (COD) with a significant percentage of refractory organic compounds, ammonium substances, salts (i.e. chloride and sulphate) as well as sulphur. Contaminants have to be removed in order to avoid significant environmental impacts. This paper presents the results obtained from a pilot scale study developed in the tannery district of Solofra in Southern Italy. It was aimed at evaluating the reuse of wastewater produced in the retanning process. The treatment process consisted of a biological treatment, as a pre-treatment, followed by a physico-chemical process (with a polymer as a coagulant) and reverse osmosis with a plane membrane. The biological pre-treatment was able to remove approx. 67% of COD, while the membrane system completed the purification process with the removal of the refractory organic compounds (chloride and sulphate). In the test carried out, the combination of a biological pre-treatment with a plane membrane system showed satisfactory results in terms of wastewater recovery and reuse in the tannery production cycle.