Waste treatment using membrane separation

Reverse osmosis is a high-pressure membrane separation process (20 to 100 bar) which can be used to reject dissolved inorganic salt or heavy metals. The concentrated waste material produced by membrane process should be recycled if possible but might require further treatment or disposal. 

Today their initial work on the preparation of suitable asymmetric membranes has touched nearly every aspect of life including uses in water purification, food technology, biological separations, waste treatment, medical applications, and bioengineering, and this appears to be just the beginning. 

The heavy metals used in printed circuit electroless plating (copper and nickel) are in chelated form (chemically "tied-up" in an organic matrix). The plating baths are more unstable than electroplating baths, thereby resulting in more frequent "dumping". As a result, waste treatment requirements in printed circuit manufacturing operations present special problems and opportunities for membrane separation processes. 

The two water desalination applications described above represent the majority of the market for electrodialysis separation systems. A small application exists in softening water, and recently a market has grown in the food industry to desalt whey and to remove tannic acid from wine and citric acid from fruit juice. A number of other applications exist in wastewater treatment, particularly regeneration of waste acids used in metal pickling operations and removal of heavy metals from electroplating rinse waters [11]. These applications rely on the ability of electrodialysis membranes to separate electrolytes from nonelectrolytes and to separate multivalent from univalent ions. 

The experimentally determined dependence of the concentration of the various entities as a function of time is shown in Fig. 15.26. The catholyte and anolyte concentrate NaOH and HN03, respectively, using a membrane separator. A plan for the electrochemical treatment of low-level nuclear wastes is shown in Fig. 15.27. The considerable electricity costs of such processes could be compensated by the sale of HN03 and NaOH. The Ru might be commercially valuable for some purposes, but its use may be compromised by residual radioactivity. 

Electrodialysis is a membrane-based process which can be used for separation, removal, or concentration of ionic species present in aqueous solutions. These operations are accomplished by the selective transport of ions through an ion exchange membrane under the influence of a direct current. One of the earliest applications of electrodialysis was the desalting of brackish water. However, since the 1970s, extensive studies have been performed on the application of electrodialysis for waste-water treatment, especially in the electroplating and metal-finishing industries. 

It has been demonstrated that membrane separation processes can be successfully used in the removal of radioactive substances, with some distinct advantages over conventional processes. Following the development of suitable membrane materials and their long-term verification in conventional water purification, membrane processes have been adopted by the nuclear industry as a viable alternative for the treatment of radioactive liquid wastes [1]. In most applications, membrane processes are used as one or more of the treatment steps in complex waste treatment systems, which combine both conventional and membrane treatment technologies. These combined systems have proved more efficient and effective for similar tasks than conventional methods alone. 

This section aims to explain the unique features of membrane separation methods, their superior performance in contaminant removal, and their operational sensitivities and limitations. We focus particularly on the factors that need to be carefully assessed when the membrane technology to be used in the treatment of liquid radioactive waste is being considered. These include membrane configuration and arrangement, process application, operational experience, data related to key performance parameters, and plant and organizational impacts. 

Membrane technology may become essential if zero-discharge mills become a requirement or legislation on water use becomes very restrictive. The type of membrane fractionation required varies according to the use that is to be made of the treated water. This issue is addressed in Chapter 35, which describes the apphcation of membrane processes in the pulp and paper industry for treatment of the effluent generated. Chapter 36 focuses on the apphcation of membrane bioreactors in wastewater treatment. Chapter 37 describes the apphcations of hollow fiber contactors in membrane-assisted solvent extraction for the recovery of metallic pollutants. The apphcations of membrane contactors in the treatment of gaseous waste streams are presented in Chapter 38. Chapter 39 deals with an important development in the strip dispersion technique for actinide recovery/metal separation. Chapter 40 focuses on electrically enhanced membrane separation and catalysis. Chapter 41 contains important case studies on the treatment of effluent in the leather industry. The case studies cover the work carried out at pilot plant level with membrane bioreactors and reverse osmosis. Development in nanofiltration and a case study on the recovery of impurity-free sodium thiocyanate in the acrylic industry are described in Chapter 42. 

Reverse osmosis enables complete retention of aU dissolved compounds, even small monovalent ions. To avoid the membrane blocking and scaling before reverse osmosis, microfiltration, or ultrafiltration pretreatment can be applied. Apart from preliminary treatment, ultrafiltration can be used for separation of suspensions or colloids, which are often formed by actinides or ions such as " Mg, Fe, °Co, and Sb. Microfiltration found the application for waste dewatering after precipitation. Nanofiltration (NF) that uses lower pressures than reverse osmosis is applied for separation of bivalent from monovalent ions. The most common application of NF process in nuclear industry is boric acid separation from the reactor coolant. 

The RO process was implemented at the Institute of Atomic Energy, Swierk. The wastes collected there, from all users of nuclear materials in Poland, have to be processed before safe disposal. Until 1990 the wastes were treated by chemical methods that sometimes did not ensure sufficient decontamination. To reach the discharge standards the system of radioactive waste treatment was modernized. A new evaporator integrated with membrane installation replaced old technology based on chemical precipitation with sorption on inorganic sorbents. Two installations, EV and 3RO, can operate simultaneously or separately. The membrane plant is applied for initial concentration of the waste before the evaporator. It may be also used for final cleaning of the distillate, depending on actual needs. The need for additional distillate purification is necessitated due to entrainment of radionuclides with droplets or with the volatile radioactive compounds, which are carried over. 

Despite of some technical and process limitations, membrane techniques are very useful methods for the treatment of different types of effluents. They can be applied in nuclear centers processing low- and intermediate-level liquid radioactive wastes or in fuel reprocessing plants. All the methods reported in the chapter have many advantages and can be easily adapted for actual, specific needs. Some of them are good pretreatment methods the other can be used separately as final cleaning steps, or can be integrated with other processes. Membrane methods can supplement or replace techniques of distillation, extraction, adsorption, ion exchange, etc. Evaluation of membrane processes employed for liquid radioactive waste treatment is presented in Table 30.17. 

O. Futamura, M. Katoh, and K. Takeuchi, Organic waste water treatment by activated sludge process using integrated type membrane separation. Desalination 98,17-25 (1994). 

To summarize, MBR have been successfully utilized for both wastewater and waste gas treatment. Membranes play a variety of roles. They are used for separating and recycling... 

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