Treatment of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis concentrates: Comparison of precipitative softening, coagulation, and anion exchange

Sarah E.H. Comstock, Treavor H. Boyer, Katherine C. Graf

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Disposal and treatment of concentrate from nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are major challenges to implementing membrane treatment processes. Intermediate treatment of membrane concentrate, between primary and secondary membrane stages, has the potential to increase membrane recovery rates and decrease the volume of concentrate produced. To achieve this, however, there is a need to better understand treatment of membrane concentrate. As a result, this work systematically evaluated lime softening, ferric sulfate coagulation, and magnetic ion exchange (MIEX) as individual, intermediate treatment processes for membrane concentrate. Six membrane concentrates, from NF and RO, with varying concentrations of calcium, dissolved organic matter (DOM), and sulfate were chosen for this study. Maximum removal of calcium was achieved by lime softening, whereas maximum removals of DOM and sulfate were achieved by MIEX. The results of this work show that intermediate treatment of NF/RO concentrate is capable of producing treated concentrate with water quality approximately equal to the initial source water.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4855-4865
Number of pages11
JournalWater Research
Volume45
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 15 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Calcium
  • Dissolved organic carbon
  • MIEX
  • Membrane concentrate
  • Membrane fouling
  • Sulfate

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Ecological Modeling
  • Water Science and Technology
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Pollution

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