Evaluation of Membrane Processes for Reducing Total Dissolved Solids Discharged to the Truckee River
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 12
Abstract
Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility (TMWRF) is a tertiary wastewater treatment facility that serves the cities of Reno and Sparks, Nev. The effluent from TMWRF is discharged into the Truckee River which flows to Pyramid Lake—a very sensitive ecosystem and habitat for endangered species. Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF), in conjunction with ultrafiltration (UF) pretreatment, were evaluated for total dissolved solids (TDS) and nutrient removal from the effluent of TMWRF at bench and pilot scale. Results from short-term pilot-scale tests showed that RO and NF membrane processes can successfully remove both TDS and nutrients from the effluent when paired with coagulation-enhanced UF pretreatment. NF membranes were able to achieve the necessary removal while maintaining higher fluxes and lower specific power consumption.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Abdel-Jawad, M., Al-Shammari, S., and Al-Sulaimi, J. (2002). “Non-conventional treatment of treated municipal wastewater for reverse osmosis.” Desalination, 142, 11–18.
Abdel-Jawad, M., Ebrahim, S., Al-Atram, F., and Al-Shammari, S. (1997). “Pretreament of municipal wastewater feed for reverse osmosis plants.” Desalination, 109, 211–223.
Applied Membranes Inc. (AMI). (2007). “Test for determining silt density index.” ⟨http://www.watertreatmentguide.com/determining_sdi.htm⟩.
Bellona, C., and Drewes, J. E. (2005). “The role of physico-chemical properties of membranes and solutes for rejection of organic acids by nanofiltration membranes.” J. Membr. Sci., 249(1–2), 227–234.
Bourgeous, K., and Narayanan, B. (2004). “Particle size matters.” Water Envir. Tech., 16, 46–50.
Brehant, A., Bonnelye, V., and Perez, M. (2002). “Comparison of MF/UF pretreatment with conventional filtration prior to RO membranes for surface seawater desalination.” Desalination, 144, 353–360.
Bruggen, B. V. D., and Vandecasteele, C. (2001). “Flux decline during nanofiltration of organic components in aqueous solution.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 35(17), 3535–3540.
Chakravorty, B., and Layson, A. (1997). “Ideal feed pretreatment for reverse osmosis by continuous microfiltration.” Desalination, 110, 143–150.
Duin, O., Wessels, P., van der Roest, H., Uijterlinde, C., and Schoonewille, H. (2000). “Direct nanofiltration or ultrafiltration of WWTP effluent.” Desalination, 132, 65–72.
Durham, B., Bourbigot, M. M., and Pankratz, T. (2001). “Membranes as pretreatment to desalination in wastewater reuse: Operating experience in the municipal and industrial sectors.” Desalination, 138, 83–90.
Ebrahim, S., Abdel-Jawad, M., Bou-Hamed, S., and Safar, M. (2001). “Fifteen years of R&D program in seawater desalination at KISR. Part 1: Pretreatment technologies for RO systems.” Desalination, 135, 141–153.
Ebrahim, S., Bou-Hamed, S., Abdel-Jawad, M., and Burney, N. (1997). “Microfiltration systems as pretreatment for RO units: Technical and economic assessment.” Desalination, 109, 165–175.
EPA. (1983). Standard test methods, Washington, D.C.
Filmtec. (2005). “Reverse osmosis system analysis (ROSA).” Midland, Mich.
Gabelich, C. J., Yun, T. I., Coffey, B. M., and Suffet, I. H. (2003). “Pilot-scale testing of reverse osmosis using conventional treatment and microfiltration.” Desalination, 154, 207–223.
Geraldes, V., Semiao, V., and Pinho, M. N. D. (2004). “Concentration polarisation and flow structure within nanofiltration spiral-wound modules with ladder-type spacers.” Comput. Struct., 82(17–19), 1561–1568.
Ghayeni, S. B., Beatson, P. J., Schneider, R. P., and Fane, A. G. (1998). “Water reclamation from municipal wastewater using combined microfiltration-reverse osmosis (MF-RO): Preliminary performance data and microbiological aspects of system operation.” Desalination, 116, 65–80.
Hench, K. R., Bissonnette, G. K., Sexstone, A. J., Coleman, J. G., Garbutt, K., and Skousen, J. G. (2003). “Fate of physical, chemical, and microbial contaminants in domestic wastewater following treatment by small constructed wetlands.” Water Res., 37, 921–927.
Hydranautics. (2005). “Integrated membrane system design (IMSDesign).”, Oceanside, Calif.
Judd, S. J., and Hillis, P. (2001). “Optimisation of combined coagulation and microfiltration for water treatment.” Water Res., 35(12), 2895–2904.
Leslie, G. I., Dunivin, W. R., Gabillet, P., Conklin, S. R., Mills, W. R., and Sudak, R. G. (1996). “Pilot testing of microfiltration and ultrafiltration upstreamof reverse osmosis during reclamation of municipal wastewater.” Proc. American Desalting Association 1996 Biennial Conf., Monterey, Calif.
Nghiem, L. D., and Schäfer, A. I. (2006). “Critical risk points of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes in water recycling applications.” Desalination, 187(1–3), 303–312.
Oden, R. (2003). “Truckee River, Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.” ⟨http://www.rgj.com/multimedia/galleries/html/2003/11/291/rgj_1.html⟩.
Osmonics. (2005). “Winflows membrane system design program,” Minnetonka, Minn.
Reardon, R., DiGiano, F., Aitken, M., Parajape, S., Kim, J., Chang, S., and Cramer, R. (2005). “Membrane treatment of secondary effluent for subsequent use.” Water Environment Research Foundation Report No. 01-CTS-6, IWA Publishing, London.
Sapari, N., Idris, A., and Hamid, N. H. A. (1996). “Total removal of heavy metal from mixed plating rinse wastewater.” Desalination, 160(1–3), 419–422.
Sethi, S., and Wiesner, M. R. (2000). “Simulated cost comparison of hollow-fiber and integrated nanofiltration configurations.” Water Resour., 34, 2589–2597.
Shaheen, H. Q. (2000). “Municipal wastewater characteristics at Irtah pumping station in the Tulkarem City.” Water Sci. Technol., 42(1–2), 337–340.
Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility (TMWRF). (2006). “Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility.” ⟨www.tmwrf.com⟩.
Van Hoof, S. C. J. M., Hashim, A., and Kordes, A. J. (1999). “The effect of ultrafiltration as pretreatment to reverse osmosis in wastewater reuse and seawater desalination applications.” Desalination, 124, 231–242.
Voorthuizen, E. M. v., Zwijnenburg, A., and Wessling, M. (2005). “Nutrient removal by NF and RO membranes in a decentralized sanitation system.” Water Res., 39(15), 3657–3667.
Wilf, M., and Alt, S. (2000). “Application of low fouling RO membrane elements for reclamation of municipal wastewater.” Desalination, 132(1–3), 11–19.
Wintgens, T., Melin, T., Schiller, A., Khan, S., Muston, M., Bixio, D., and Thoeye, C. (2005). “The role of membrane processes in municipal wastewater reclamation and reuse.” Desalination, 178, 1–11.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 12 • December 2007
Pages: 1136 - 1144
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 12, 2006
Accepted: Apr 26, 2007
Published online: Dec 1, 2007
Published in print: Dec 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.