At present, reverse osmosis membrane technology has obvious application advantages in environmental engineering. Firstly, reverse osmosis membrane technology only requires the formation of a pressure difference on both sides of the solution, which can provide a certain pressure to the water body through a high-pressure pump and consume extremely low energy; Secondly, reverse osmosis membrane technology can directly obtain highly pure solutions, with simpler process design and operation methods. It has better universality for substances with similar physical properties. Thirdly, reverse osmosis membrane technology has low pollution and high efficiency, making it an environmentally friendly chemical production technology.
The application of reverse osmosis membrane technology in environmental engineering mainly focuses on the following aspects.
1. Application in seawater desalination
Reverse osmosis membrane technology has been used in the field of seawater desalination for decades, and is currently the highest recovery rate, lowest cost, and cleanest seawater desalination technology. With a desalination rate of up to 99.5% and an energy recovery efficiency of over 90%, it has become one of the most competitive seawater desalination technologies on the market. This technology first uses a seawater supply pump to input seawater into the system, and performs pre-treatment to remove organisms and solid suspended solids from seawater, in order to meet the treatment requirements of the reverse osmosis membrane group; Next, use a seawater high-pressure pump to increase the pressure of seawater before desalination; Afterwards, the obtained fresh water is subjected to mineralization, corrosion prevention, and disinfection treatment, and finally connected to the municipal pipeline network. During this process, solutes can be separated from fresh water without undergoing phase transition, avoiding damage to the reaction vessel and solute structure due to heating and other processes.
2. Application in industrial wastewater treatment
Treating industrial wastewater is one of the most promising applications of reverse osmosis membrane technology in environmental engineering. In the production process of the printing and dyeing industry, a large amount of industrial wastewater is generated. This type of industrial wastewater has high alkalinity, containing a large amount of organic salts and inorganic pollutants. Traditional wastewater treatment methods cannot bear such high costs. However, the use of reverse osmosis membrane technology can effectively filter the organic and inorganic salt ions in the printing and dyeing wastewater. In addition, as a major steel producing country, China also has a high demand for the treatment of wastewater generated during the steelmaking process. Iron and steel wastewater contains organic pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as iron ions, magnesium ions, and a large amount of solid suspended solids, making it suitable for treatment using reverse osmosis membrane technology. After extensive practical production application verification, reverse osmosis membrane technology can effectively treat organic and inorganic salt ion pollutants in industrial wastewater, control desalination rate above 90%, reduce wastewater conductivity, and reduce environmental pollution during its discharge process.
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