Brine Solution Recovery Using Nanofiltration

By Dr. Isaac Solomon Jebamani, V. Gopalakrishnan, and G. Senthilkumar

July 2009

1. Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, Government College of Technology (GCT), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India 2. P.G. Student, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India 3. P.G. Student, M.E. Environmental Engineering, GCT, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Abstract In this study, the nanofiltration process was contacted and the practical applicability of the nanofiltration for the recovery of brine solution from reverse osmosis reject water (textile dyeing wastewater) was studied. The Na and Cl of the effluent was found in the range of 19000 mg/L and 21000 respectively. The effect of operating variables such as flow rate, feed pressure, and recovery rate on pilot scale NF were studied. The study was contacted at different operational condition as follow as feed pressure is 12.2, 10.2 and 7.6 kg/cm and the recovery rate is 75%, 65% and 55% respectively. The recovery of brine solution 60-80% was achieved in pilot scale NF at 10.2 kg/cm and at 65% of recovery rate and the efficiency increases with decrease of pressure and decrease with increase of flow rate and recovery rate. The Recovery of Brine Solution using Nanofiltration was successfully done and the brine solution recovered can be reused in the process. Keywords: Nanofiltration, Reverse Osmosis reject water, Brine solution (NaCl) Recovery Rates, Sodium Chloride, and TDS. Introduction Textile industry plays an important role in the industrial development of India and is the second largest sector of Indian economy, next to agriculture. As per the recent data published by the ministry of textile, it contributes about 17 percent to industrial production, 7 percent to the GDP, and 25 percent to the countrys export earnings. The textile industry in India is a key sector in terms of employment as it is the second largest

employment. It provides direct employment to over 35 million (Ministry of textile annual report 2008-09). Textile industry is one of the major polluting industries, which consumes large amount of water for its various operations and generate huge quantity of wastewater which is having high Total Dissolved Solids, Sodium and chloride and is strongly coloured due to utilization of various dye stuff. The dyeing industry is characterized by using a large quantity of chemicals and huge quantities of water. Detergents and caustic are used to remove dirt, grit, oils and waxes. Bleach is used to improve whiteness and brightness. Dyes, fixing agents and many inorganic salts are used to provide the brilliant array of colors the market demands. Dyeing using reactive dyes generates warm wastewater strongly colored, containing suspended solids, concentrated NaCl and widely varying acid amounts. Dyeing one kilogram of cotton with reactive dyes requires from 70 to 150 litres of water, 0.6 kg of NaCl and 40 g of reactive dye [1]. The treatment generally used consists of 4 steps: Pretreatment of anaerobic, aerobic (Biological), reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. At the end of this treatment recyclable brine is obtained which contains the total salt added in the initial dye bath, pure water which is reusable for further operations and a small volume of concentrated liquor containing hydrolyzed reactive dyes and dyeing auxiliaries. State authorities and local municipalities have begun to target the textile industry to clean up the wastewater that is being discharged from the textile mills. 2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Membrane Technology

Membrane can be used to fulfil the purpose of recovery and recycling of valuable components and energy in textile, dyeing process and to fulfil the purpose of lowering the specific cost for further treatment by reducing volume of waste. In study membrane separation technology on aqueous waste stream was investigated. Membrane filtration technology has been used to treat a variety of industrial wastewater applications including flexographic ink, metal finishing, chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) and alkaline cleaning. However, wastewater treatment systems in these industrial applications are typically small, generally not exceeding 100 gpm. More recently, spiral wound and hollow fibre membranes have been applied to large capacity applications for wastewater treatment and reuse. This paper will discuss the use of membrane technologies within a wastewater treatment or reuse facility for both municipal and industrial wastewater [6].
2.3 Types of Membrane Technology

The four commonly used membrane types are: microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). These processes differ in the pore size.

Fig 3 Various Separation Processes

2.4 Separation of Different Particles By Membrane Techniques

When a feed stream is introduced into the membrane element under pressure and passed over the membrane surface in a controlled flow path, Solutes, whose sizes are greater than the pore size of the membrane, are retained and concentrated forming a liquid stream called the concentrate or retentate. Water and solutes smaller than the pores pass through the membrane and are called permeate. Membrane operation is characterized by the flux, or flow rate per unit area of membrane, and by its retention or the percent of each solute species which does not pass through the membrane [2].

Fig 4 Membrane Process Performance Characteristics

2.5 Nanofiltration

Nano-Filtration is used to separate sugars and divalent salts and monovalent salts from aqueous solutions. NF has found wide application for water softening. It is also demonstrating ability to decolorize the solutions. However, NF modules are extremely sensitive to fouling by colloidal material and polymers. For this reason extensive pretreatment is required. UF makes an excellent pretreatment substitute by eliminating the polymer addition, chlorine disinfectant and mixed media per-filtration. Virtually all NF and RO membranes are thin film composite membranes. Nanofiltration element is a high area, high productivity element designed to remove a high percentage of salts, nitrate, iron and organic compounds such as pesticides, herbicides and THM precursors. Nanofiltation is a pressure-driven membrane process. Nano filtration (NF) refers to a membrane process which rejects particles in the approximate size range of 1 nanometer. Organic molecules with molecular weights greater than 200-400 are rejected. Retains divalent salts and organics, Passes monovalent salts, water, acid and alkaline compounds. It is relatively a new term, has been employed for application that fall within the boundaries of UF and RO. The Pore size of Nanofilter is 0.001 micron (106 to 10-9)
2.6 Specifications of Membrane

Fig. 5 Spiral Wound Membrane

A. B. C. D.

Length Outer Diameter Permeate tube diameter wound diameter of membrane

Table 4 Specifications of Membrane

Product HPA 100 4040

Size 4 x 40L

Product water flow rate m/day 6.40

Minimum Rejection at 20000 ppm MgSo4 99% Na2So4 99% Nacl 90%

Su

99

Fig 6 Cross View

2.6.1 Properties

pH tolerance : 1- 13 during operation and cleaning. Low fouling due to high Hydrophilicity. Low salt rejection at low molecular wt cut offs, allow operating on high salt concentrations at low pressures. Available in MWCO ranging from 50 to 500 Daltons. High operating flux rates due to hydrophilicity. Available in tape wrap, FRP wrap and net outer wrap constructions Chlorine tolerance up to 0.5 ppm continuous exposure. Membranes can operate on high BOD and COD feed streams.
Table 5 Design Consideration of Parameters
N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Membrane Type Maximum operating pressure Membrane filtration area Molecular weight cut-off Operating Temperature Operating pH range Cleaning pH range Free Chlorine tolerance Maximum feed silt density index Outer wrap Maximum feed flow rate Maximum Pressure drop per element Hydrophilized Polyamide 600 psi (42kg/cm) 7.9 sq.mtrs Min.100 daltons Max. 70C 2 - 11 pH 1.5 - 12 pH <0.5 ppm continues 5 NTU FRP/Tape wrap/sanitary 10 m/day 15 psi

2.7 Experimental Setup and procedure

Fig 7 Experimental Setup

1. NF Feed tank 2. Bypass valve 3. Outlet valve 4. Pump 5. Pressure gauge 6. Micron filter 5 7. Micron filter 1 8. Flow meter 9. Centrifugal pump 10. Nanofilter 11. Pressure gauge (NF) 12. Reject Outlet valve (NF) 13. Permeate outlet NF membrane was installed in the membrane module and a series of experimental runs were carried out. R.O. rejects water used as feed in the feed tank. The operating variables were transmembrane pressure, feed concentration, pH, competing compound and membrane types. [8] Nanofiltration experiments were carried out in different steps: In first step, experiments were carried out in 3 different recovery rates such as 75%, 65%, and 55%. (TDS of NF Feed = 17600 mg/L). In second step, the nanofiltration experiments were carried out at different pressures 12.2, 10.2 and 7.6 bars. In third step, different TDS concentrations were investigated. In fourth step each recovery rates operated 4 hours continuously. Then one litre brine solution samples were collected for analysis for every hour. All experiments were carried out in 4 hour to get optimum concentration of brine solution. In all the steps, the temperature was kept constant, between 20-25 C, TDS concentration was mg/L.
Table 6 Field Operational Conditions
N Operational Condition NF Permeate Recovery 55% 65% 75%

1. 2. 3. 4.

Feed Flow (m/hr) (Constant) Feed Pressure (kg/cm) Reject Pressure(kg/cm) p (kg/cm)

10.0 7.6 6.3 1.3

10.0 10.2 8.6 1.6

10.0 12.2 10.9 1.3