Investigation of ultrafiltration parameters of different organic load wastewater types

Abstract

Almost a third of Earth’s freshwater resources are used by municipalities, agriculture and industries and therefore very large quantities of wastewater are generated and discharged into surface water or groundwater. If discharged inadequately and without previous treatment, wastewater can cause chemical pollution, affect aquatic life as well as human health and have a negative impact on the environment. An emerging technology for wastewater treatment is the membrane separation process due to the low cost, the use of ambient temperature, the low energy consumption compared to other traditional techniques, and the high selectivity of different separation mechanisms with compact design. In this study, ultrafiltration (UF) technique was investigated to treat wastewater with different organic loads. The effects of the stirring and a three-dimensional (3D) printed spacer, integrated into the UF cell were analyzed on the permeate fluxes, membrane rejections of turbidity, conductivity and chemical oxygen demand (COD).