Transport models of ammonium nitrogen in wastewater from rare earth smelteries by reverse osmosis membranes

Abstract

Wastewater from rare earth smelteries contains large amounts of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), which causes severe environmental problems. In this contribution, the desalination efficiency of reverse osmosis (RO) was investigated in the treatment of NH4Cl or NaCl solutions from 0.1 to 40 g/L under different operating pressures with a commercial RO membrane. Experimental results showed that when an operating pressure above 30 bar is applied to the 5 g/L NH4Cl solution, the permeate was found to meet the discharge standards of NH4+-N. Compared to NH4Cl, the permeate fluxes of NaCl solutions were higher due to the higher net driving force and lower propensity to membrane fouling. Theoretical models indicate a linear relationship between water flux and the net driving force for both NH4Cl and NaCl solutions. On the contrary, a power function between the salt flux and concentration difference correlated well with the experimental data for salt transport. The equations for water and salt transport obtained by this work would provide a facile and practical means for predicting the membrane performance in design and optimization of RO processes for the treatment of wastewater from the rare earth industry.