A combination of reverse osmosis and electrodialysis to improve water recovery in industrial wastewater

The article discusses in detail the membrane processing of complex systems, reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodialysis (ED) membranes. Currently, the development of industrial wastewater treatment technologies is of great interest to many researchers. This is due to the fact that the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries are becoming increasingly important in our lives, while exacerbating one of the most serious environmental problems, environmental pollution from industrial wastewater, which contains harmful substances in high concentrations. This study is devoted to the analysis of a new technology for the extraction of complex components from industrial wastewater, combining reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. Reverse osmosis systems are pressure controlled membrane separation processes. In contrast, an electrodialysis system is an electrochemical process that is commonly used industrially under normal atmospheric pressure. However, such membrane processes have a significant drawback, the working membranes are contaminated with suspended substances in the wastewater and lose their activity. Therefore, to maintain the activity of the membranes for a long time, it is necessary to pre-treat wastewater by removing suspended solids. The analysis of the recovered components opens up new perspectives for the recovery of industrial wastewater. There is a wide range of methods for pretreatment of water for reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. Ultrafiltration (UF) followed by reverse osmosis is an important process for separating organic and inorganic compounds from wastewater. This article discusses some of these methods. In conclusion, it should be noted that electrodialysis demonstrates remarkable technical advantages in the treatment of concentrated solution after RO.