Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis
Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis
(OP)
I work in a polypropylene manufacturing plant in Thailand and have an idea to recycle waste water by reverse osmosis package. The waste water quality is very mild. It is a quite new issue in my country but I have seen in literatures that the concept was launched 10 years ago! Please anyone experienced in the subject matter tells me how the performance of the technique is.





RE: Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis
Perhaps check with RO membrane suppliers, or a good textbook, to estimate reject rate based on your water quality parameters. For example, if half the water that passes through the membrane is recycled, the other half would be wastewater, with concentrated impurities, for disposal. Watch for oil and other fouling problems (you may need silt density index values of your wastewater).
Capital (and operating) costs of RO system may be high relative to sourcing fresh water, and overall Kg/day of dissolved solids to waste will not change much (of course the contaminants have to go somewhere), depending upon process details.
There may be other ways to recycle waste water, depending upon its quality and quality required for other processes at your plant, for example, to cooling water tower, or other use.
Good luck.
RE: Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis
Thanks.
RE: Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis
Your response is kindly requested.
RE: Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis
Watch for resin fouling, though ... there is often quite a bit of pre-treatment to be done (to control silt density index (SDI), TSS, etc.
RO is commonly used for boiler make-up water treatment. It competes with demineralization by ion exchange (although there is often still ion exchange polishing after the RO, etc, depending upon water quality required).
Good luck
RE: Waste water recycling by reverse osmosis