Heavy metal removal using reverse osmosis

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study reverse osmosis characteristics for copper, nickel and zinc removal from technological aqueoussolutions. Reverse osmosis (RO) is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solution through a membrane that retainsthe solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side. A polyamide thin-film composite membrane TW30-1812-50was used. The difference in flux decline is significant. There is a significant difference in flux decline depending on the anions of usedheavy metal salts. The heavy metal concentration also has a significant influence on the membrane separation. There is alsoa significant difference in flux decline depending on the transmembrane pressure.

Keywords

• reverse osmosis
• heavy metal
• copper
• nickel
• zinc