Wastewater polishing using membrane technology: a review of existing installations

Abstract

The use of membrane technology for municipal wastewater reuse is growing in importance worldwide as water becomes increasingly scarce. A review of nine membrane technology-based water reuse plants from across the world has been conducted to provide an insight into the trends in design and operation of these plants, and elucidate the impact of key water quality and other determinants. Data reveal a number of common elements, such as the design flux for the reverse osmosis membrane, as well as a number of other trends. The microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) backwash interval appears to correlate better with feed water temperature than turbidity or total suspended solids, whereas chemical cleaning requirements are more dependent on plant operating parameters and water quality. There is some indication that the MF/UF pore size influences the filtrate turbidity (and silt density index) and so downstream reverse osmosis fouling and cleaning. Finally, specific energy demand (SED) values vary widely, from 0.8 to 2.3 kWh m(-3) permeate. Whilst the SED for the MF/UF process follows the flux, the overall energy demand shows no apparent dependence on the dissolved solids concentration or other feed water quality determinants. This range of energy demand amounts to 25-70% of the energy demand for seawater desalination.

Effect of Membrane Type for the Treatment of Organized Industrial Zone (OIZ) Wastewater with a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR): Batch Experiments

“…The treated water had high EC, low COD, and low turbidity. Although this wastewater had higher organic and pollutant loading rate, these values are consistent with other MBR studies treating municipal wastewater treatment plants in terms of average COD and turbidity removal [25,26]. Since the membranes are MF and UF membranes, EC values do not reduce as expected.…”

Direct water reclamation from sewage using ceramic tight ultra- and nanofiltration

“…1) [25,34]. However, the conventional RO-based water recycle technology requires a large footprint and does not make optimal use of energy, water and nutrient reuse [19,27]. Therefore, alternative treatment concepts are in demand.…”

Phosphorus resources, their depletion and conservation, a review

“…Kalmykova et al, 2012;Comber et al, 2013). A small part of urban and peri-urban waste water is used for irrigation, especially in water-scarce countries, with varying safeguards for food production regarding infection risk, salinization and contamination and varying recycling efficiencies for P (Carr et al, 2010;Raffin et al, 2013;Sato et al, 2003). Major ways of handling (per)urban waste water are direct discharge to water and the treatment in waste water treatment plants.…”