Study on Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis Performance to Remove Pollutant from Textile Industry Waste Water

Abstract

Treated waste water from secondary treatment unit of textile industry has high TDS. Therefore, it
required to install RO plant to reduce high TDS from waste water. A pilot plant study was done to assess the
effectiveness of RO plant.
The membrane technology was used with associated modern technologies to make sure that the entire system
would produce pure water. The end water should pass the quality set by the governing bodies. In the reverse osmosis
method, need to understand that the feed water should be preconditioned first so as the membranes will be protected.
Ultrafiltration is a pretreatment of Reverse Osmosis method. The reverse osmosis method starts with the pre filtration of
water. Through pre filtration, the large particulates as well as the contaminants will be sorted out before it will reach the
membrane. It is also referred as pre filtering wherein the semi permeable membrane will be free from clogging.If the
pressure is reduced during the process, it is an indicator that the water is not filtered enough before it will reach the unit.
The reverse osmosis is a reliable and proven to be effective method of producing excellent quality water. It reduce the
TDS upto 70%. The performance study in respect of various parameters have been carried out in this case study.
The case study was for analysis and design for reuse of waste water from textile industrial unit. It is observed
that in final outlet, all parameters except Total Dissolved Solid for some samples were meeting the standards of reuse. .
After number of trials, it was found that with Reverse Osmosis, the TDS was reduced to less than 57.22 mg/lit, which is
acceptable for reuse of waste water for agricultural purpose and other industrial purposes.