Industrial water reclamation using polymeric membranes – case studies involving a car manufacturer and a beverage producer

This study presents the evaluation of different polymeric membranes for the reclamation of wastewater\udgenerated by two manufacturers. Specifically, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were evaluated for\udwastewater pretreatment use while nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were\udevaluated for wastewater reclamation use. Results show that both the UF membranes used were not\udsuitable for pretreatment of the oily wastewater stream due to the presence of suspended cathodic\udelectrodeposition (CED) paint particles. The CED paint particles rapidly deposit on the membrane surface\udresulting in severe fouling and very low permeate fluxes. With respect to the metals and beverage\udwastewater streams, the polyvinylidine-difluoride (PVDF) UF membrane was shown to be more suitable\udfor pretreatment than the polyacrylonitrile UF membrane. The PVDF-UF membrane had relatively lower\udflux decline rates, higher turbidity and higher total organic carbon reduction rates. Meanwhile, the lowpressure\udRO membrane proved to be suitable for wastewater reclamation of the oily and beverage\udwastewater streams – showing low flux decline rates, high conductivity and high chemical oxygen\uddemand reduction rates. In terms of reclaiming themetalswastewater stream, theNFmembrane proved\udmore suitable than the low-pressure RO membrane. The NF membrane had relatively higher permeate\udfluxes and metals rejection rates compared to the RO membrane