Determining the Efficiency of Reverse Osmosis in the Purification of Water from Phosphates

Abstract

Processes of water purification from phosphates using a low-pressure reverse osmosis membrane were studied. It was shown that the concentration of phosphates in the permeate largely depends on their initial concentration in the water and increases along with the degree of permeate selection. It was established that when using the Filmtec TW3–1812–50 membrane for phosphate concentrations up to 20 mg/dm3, their concentration in the permeate does not exceed 2.5 mg/dm3 with a degree of permeate selection up to 90% when cleaning solutions in distilled and artesian water. This value is below the permissible level for drinking water. When the concentration of phosphates increases to 100 and 1000 mg/dm3, their content in the permeate increases sharply to the values significantly higher than the permissible level in both drinking and wastewater. When sodium orthophosphate was added to artesian water, the effectiveness of its purification on this membrane with respect to chlorides, sulfates, hardness ions, and hydrocarbons was high. This indicates that the cartridges with these membranes can be used both in industrial installations and in households for further purification of artesian and tap water to drinking water quality.