Removal of boron from water by using reverse osmosis

Abstract

The removal of boron from water was investigated by using reverse osmosis (RO) technique with SWHR, BW-30 (FILMTEC) and AG (GE Osmonics) membranes, not considered previously. The effect of pH and concentration of the feed water and operating pressure on the boron rejection was investigated. The experimental results indicated that boron rejection mostly depends on membrane type, pH of the feed water and operating pressure. The results also showed that boron can be effectively removed only at feed water pH of 11. The lowest permeate boron concentration (the highest rejection, close to 99%) was obtained when SWHR membrane was used. The rejection efficiency of the membranes was found to be in the order of SWHR > BW-30 > AG. For all membranes, boron rejection increased with increasing operating pressure. Finally, two different natural (ground) water samples containing 24.8 and 9.4 mg/L of boron were treated by using RO with SWHR membrane and obtained results showed that RO could be efficiently used (with >95% rejection) for removal of boron from groundwaters.