Membrane Filtration

1. Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis is one of the membrane separation process that permits the
removal of all mineral salts, hydrolyzed reactive dyes, and chemical auxiliaries. It is
commonly use in decolorization and elimination of chemical auxiliaries in dye house
wastewater. It is must be noted that higher the concentration of dissolved salt, the
more important the osmotic pressure becomes. Therefore, the greater the energy
required for the separation process.
The process of reverse osmosis is based on the ability of certain specific
polymeric membranes, usually cellulose acetate or nylon to pass pure water at fairly
high rates and to reject salts. In a typical reverse osmosis system, the feed water is
pumped through a pretreatment section which removes suspended solids and if
necessary, ions such as iron and magnesium which may foul the system. The feed
water is then pressurised and sent through the reverse osmosis modules. Clear water
permeates through the membrane under the pressure driving force, emerging at
atmospheric pressure. The pressure of reject stream is reduced by a power recovery,
which helps drive the high pressure pump and then is discharged.

2. Nanofiltration
Nanofiltration has been applied for the treatment of colored effluents from the
textile industry. Nanofiltartion can be positioned between reverse osmosis and
ultrafiltration. Nanofiltration is essentially a lower pressure version membrane where
the purity of permeate water less important. This process is used where the high salt
rejection of reverse osmosis is not necessary.
The nanofiltration is capable of removing hardness elements such as calcium
or magnesium together with bacteria, viruses, and colour. Nanofiltration operated on
lower pressure than reverse osmosis and as such treatment cost is lower than reverse
osmosis treatment.

3. Ultrafiltration

Ultrafiltration enables elimination of macromolecules and particles, but the

elimination of polluting substances, such as dyes, is never complete. Reverse osmosis
membranes retain all solutes including salts, while ultrafiltration membranes retain
only macro molecules and suspended solids. Thus salts, solvents and low molecular
weight organic solutes pass through ultrafiltration membrane with the permeate water.
Since salts are not retained by the membrane, the osmotic pressure differences
across ultrafiltration membrane are negligible. Flux rates through the membranes are
fairly high, and hence lower pressures can be used. Ultrafiltration membranes may be
made from cellulose acetate, polyelectrolyte complexes, nylon and inert polymers.

Hence, acidic or caustic streams may also be processed and the process is not usually
limited by chemical attack of the membranes.

4. Microfiltration

Microfiltration is suitable for treating dye baths containing pigment dyes, as

well as for subsequent rinsing baths. The chemicals used in dye bath, which are not
filtered by microfiltration, will remain in the bath. Microfiltration can also be used as
a pretreatment for nanofiltration or reverse osmosis.

There are many advantages of these membrane separation processes. It is a

new separation technology, with high separation efficiency, low energy consumption,
easy operation, no pollution and so on. For example the reverse osmosis, it remove all
minerals salts, hydrolyzes reactive dyes and chemical auxiliaries. In nanofiltration, it
will separated organic compounds of low molecular weight and divalent ions from
monovalent salts. It also known as a treatment of high concentration. The advantage
for ultrafiltration and microfiltration is where they only use low pressure for their
process treatment.
Instead of their advantages, there are some disadvantages in these membrane
separation processes. This technology is still not large-scale promoted because it has
the limitation of requiring special equipment, and having high investment and the
membrane fouling and so on. As an example in reverse osmosis, it required high
pressure to make sure the process is working. For ultrafiltration and microfiltration
treatment, there is insufficient quality of the treated wastewater.