A study of inline chemical coagulation/precipitation-ceramic microfiltration and nanofiltration for reverse osmosis concentrate minimization and reuse in the textile industry

Reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC) is one of the major drawbacks in membrane treatment technologies specifically due to the scale-forming ions. It is important to remove these ions from ROC to enhance total water recovery and reuse in the textile industry that is the largest water-consumer and polluter industry. In this work, coagulation/high pH precipitation (CP) integrated with ceramic microfiltration (CMF) was studied as a pre-treatment method followed by nanofiltration (NF) to increase the efficiency of water recovery. To prevent organic fouling, ferric chloride (FeCl3) was applied at a concentration of 3 mM, and ceramic membranes were used for the removal of non-precipitating crystals and/or suspended solids (at high pH) before the NF processes. The CP-CMF method successfully removed calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), silica (SiO2), and TOC up to 97, 83, 92, and 87% respectively, which resulted in higher performance of the NF process. Moreover, this method provided higher flux at lower pressure that ultimately increased overall water recovery of the NF process to achieve near-zero liquid discharge (n-ZLD). A cost–benefit estimation showed that a high-quality effluent (COD<5 mg/L; conductivity 700<μS/cm; negligible residual color) can be generated and recycled in the textile industry at an economical cost (approximately 0.97 USD/m3). Therefore, ROC minimization and water recovery can help to achieve n-ZLD using the CP-CMF/NF method.