Geundert White Paper: Comparing MR/RO Performance on Secondary and Tertiary Effluents in Municipal W

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Comparing MR/RO Performance on Secondary and Tertiary Effluents in Reclamation/Reuse Applications

Author            :Dawn Guendert

Designation    :Memcor Product Manager

Company        :USFilter

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Synopsis

Increasing pressures on fresh water resources have resulted in more stringent discharge limitations on municipal wastewater effluents, and placed a greater emphasis on water reclamation and reuse. Most existing wastewater treatment plans can be upgraded to meet new discharge requirements and it is often technically and economically viable to repurify and/or desalinate effluents to provide an alternative or “new” water source.
Secondary effluents from most modern municipal wastewater facilities can usually be discharged to large rivers or lakes. Secondary effluents which have been filtered are considered tertiary effluents, and usually of adequate quality for discharge to smaller, environmentally sensitive waterbodies, or for use in irrigation and industrial cooling applications.
Advanced technologies including Microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) followed by reverse osmosis (RO) may be used to produce water with a quality much higher than tertiary effluent, often referred to as repurified water. These technically-proven processes can produce water that meets virtually any desired level of quality for indirect potable reuse by groundwater recharge, or for industrial purposes such as boiler make-up and process water applications.
Most reclamation facilities that repurify wastewater plan effluents use an integrated “dual-membrane” process where an RO membrane system is preceded by a low-pressure membrane for removal of those solids that might otherwise foul the RO membranes.
When considering the addition of an MF/US and RO repurification system at an existing facility, the operational cost impact resulting from such an upgrade must be determined. This is an important factor in determining the marketability of the repurified water.
One of the first questions that arises when such an upgrade is being evaluated is whether or not a tertiary filtration step is necessary or beneficial prior. Filtration seems to have an inherent process benefit because it reduces suspended solids, including total organic carbon (TOC), and natural organic matter (NOM), so membrane systems can operate at high fluxes with longer cleaning intervals. On the other hand, MF/UF systems are capable of operation at high suspended solids loadings and the added cost of operating a tertiary filter may be unnecessary.
This paper will review historical, operational data from several full scale wastewater repurification products and evaluate the actual capital and operating cost differentials using secondary and tertiary wastewater prior to MF/UF and RO repurification systems.
*Copyright 2003. American Water Works Association. All rights reserved.

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