ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Production of process water using integrated membrane processes

K. Karakulski, M. Gryta, and M. Sasim

Institute of Chemical and Environment Engineering, Szczecin University of Technology, Pułaskiego 10, 70-322 Szczecin, Poland

E-mail: krzysztof.karakulski@ps.pl

Received: 27 March 2006  Revised: 28 June 2006  Accepted: 4 July 2006

Abstract: Application of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, and integrated membrane processes for the preparation of process water from natural water or industrial effluents was investigated. A two-stage reverse osmosis plant enabled almost complete removal of solutes from the feed water. High-purity water was prepared using the membrane distillation. However, during this process a rapid membrane fouling and permeate flux decline was observed when the tap water was used as a feed. The precipitation of deposit in the modules was limited by the separation of sparingly soluble salts from the feed water in the nanofiltration. The combined reverse osmosis—membrane distillation process prevented the formation of salt deposits on the membranes employed for the membrane distillation. Ultrafiltration was found to be very effective removing trace amounts of oil from the feed water. Then the ultrafiltration permeate was used for feeding of the remaining membrane modules resulting in the total removal of oil residue contamination. The ultrafiltration allowed producing process water directly from the industrial effluents containing petroleum derivatives.

Keywords: water treatment - ultrafiltration - nanofiltration - reverse osmosis - membrane distillation

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-006-0076-y

Chemical Papers 60 (6) 416–421 (2006)