reverseosmosisinthetreatmentofhazardouswaste.docVIP

Reverse Osmosis in the Treatment of Hazardous Waste Presented by Sean Tanaka Craig Edwards Scott Hatton Presented to Dr. Sczechowski ENVE 436 Hazardous Waste Management December 4,1998 Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology is used by many industries, including pharmaceutical and semiconductor. RO is used to purify drinking water in homes, desalinate seawater, and to remove impurities from process water. RO is used alone or with pre- and/or post-treatment equipment to meet a specified requirement for water quality. As industrial processes have changed and environmental regulations become more stringent, reverse osmosis is now used to treat hazardous waste. One such application is the concentrating of metals in rinse water in the metal plating industry. A second application is the treatment of landfill leachate and other liquids high in Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). When a semi-permeable membrane separates two solutions having different solute concentrations, a natural diffusion from the lower concentration to the higher concentration will take place. If one side contains fresh water and the other side contains salt water, the fresh water will diffuse to the salt water side in order to balance the concentrations on each side of the membrane. This process is called osmosis. When equilibrium is reached, there will be an osmotic pressure build up on the fresh water side that balances the concentration difference. In order to reverse this process, a mechanical pressure must be applied to the salt water side that is greater than the osmotic pressure. The change in direction of natural flow under this applied pressure is called reverse osmosis. In many commercial reverse osmosis units, operating pressures range from about 150 to 1500 pi (Geankoplis 788). The value of osmotic pressure (() has been experimentally determined by Van’t Hoff to be: ( = ((n/Vm)RT Where ( = osmotic coefficient n = number of kg mol