Evaluation of Commercial RO Membrane for BaCl2 Separation

Abstract

The conventional methods of the BaCl2 solution separation are characterized by high energy consumption, reagent requirement, and other technological limitations. The pressure-driven membrane process can be an alternative, but the number of published investigations in this field is limited. The study of the effectivity of the BaCl2 diluted solution separation using the commercially available reverse osmosis membrane was carried out. It was defined that the spiral wound membrane module HID TFC 1812-75 GPD (nominal permeate flux is 281 l/d) has acceptable characteristics of productivity and selectivity. In particular, the permeate flux through these membranes for the BaCl2 solutions does not differ from the fluxes for other salt solutions in the considered range of the applied pressures (0.2-0.6 MPa). The rejection coefficient values were in the range of 0.9-0.95 and slightly varied with applied pressure. Therefore, such membranes are suitable for wastewater purification from the remains of BaCl2. At the same time, the concentration ratio does not exceed 1.5-2, consequently, the application of such membranes on the concentration stage requires deeper justification based on the economical parameters. The significant influence of the concentration polarization on the separation effectivity was not detected up to applied pressures 0.5 MPa.