Applications of Reverse Osmosis Process in Wastewater Treatment

This chapter presents a critical review of implementing the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process as a wastewater treatment method in several industrial applications, highlighting scopes and limitations. It discusses the feasibility and reliability of a RO process in removing a variety of organic and highly toxic compounds from wastewater. A common effluent of a tannery wastewater treatment plant contains a significant amount of residual organic and inorganic impurities. The effective conventional treatment methods of tannery wastewater include chemical flocculation and biological processes such as activated sludge process. The textile industry consumes large amounts of water and therefore produces large quantities of wastewater from different stages of dyeing, rinsing, bleaching, and finishing processes. The electroplating industry also generates large amounts of wastewater which contains heavy metals and is harmful to the environment. The fast-growing oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries produce vast amounts of oily wastewater.