Performance evaluation of tertiary treatment through ultrafiltration: Case study in Isfahan-industrial wastewater treatment plant

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study was the performance evaluation of ultrafiltration (UF) membrane process as an advanced treatment to secondary effluent quality improvement in Isfahan - Morchekhort Industrial Estate wastewater treatment plant. Materials and Methods: Membrane system used in this study included a flat sheet UF module of polysulfone with 0.1 μm pore size. The coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation (Coag, Floc, Sed) and rapid sand filtration in conjunction with granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration was used as pretreatment of secondary effluent. All test methods was obtained of standard method for the examination of water and wastewater. Results: The membrane system could decrease turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total hardness (TH), total coliform (TC), fecal coliform (FC), total nitrogen (TN) and Cl− , 24.5, 19, 48, 10.5, 94.5, 85.1, 15.4 and 1.01%, respectively. Conclusion: UF was able to improve chemical parameters of secondary effluent and meet national environmental standards. However, achievement to optimum operation of this system requires adequate pretreatments such as adding filter aid, sand filtration and GAC. The most part of suspended particles expressed by turbidity was removed within UF membrane, whereas only a little of organic substance expressed by COD or color and salt expressed by conductivity could be removed.

Keywords

• Coagulation and flocculation
• granular activated carbon
• industrial estate wastewater
• sand filtration
• ultrafiltration