Treatment of Mine Water with Reverse Osmosis and Concentrate Processing to Recover Copper and Deposit Calcium Carbonate.

Mine water usually contains heavy metals and other inorganic and organic pollutants that contaminate water bodies. Reverse osmosis (RO) techniques are capable of producing purified water that meets discharge regulations. However, the problem of RO concentrate disposal and utilization is still not solved.

Production of Drinking Water with Membranes with Simultaneous Utilization of Concentrate and Reject Effluent after Sludge Dewatering.

A new technology is described that enables us to completely exclude liquid discharges during production of drinking water from surface sources. The proposed described technological scheme separates the natural water into a stream of purified drinking water and dewatered sludge. The sludge moisture has a value of 80 percent.

The Selection of Efficient Antiscalant for RO Facility, Control of Its Quality and Evaluation of the Economical Efficiency of Its Application.

Adsorption of polymeric inhibitor molecules to calcium carbonate crystal surface was investigated. Inhibiting efficiencies of phosphonic acid-based antiscalants are dependent on the amount of adsorbed material on the growing crystal surface. A strong antiscalant even at a small dose provides the necessary rate of adsorption.

Investigation of Scaling and Inhibition Mechanisms in Reverse Osmosis Spiral Wound Elements.

Understanding of crystal formation and growth conditions in reverse osmosis membrane channels enables us to develop efficient tools to control scaling in membrane facilities and increase their recoveries. Crystals are formed in "dead areas" and subsequently get out of them and sediment on membrane surface. Adsorption of polymeric inhibitor molecules to crystal surface was investigated as well as antiscalant behaviour throughout nucleation in "dead areas" and growth of crystals sedimented on membrane surface.

A Case Study of Calcium Carbonate Crystallization during Reverse Osmosis Water Desalination in Presence of Novel Fluorescent-Tagged Antiscalants.

Calcium carbonate scaling in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination process is studied in the presence of two novel fluorescent-tagged scale inhibitors 1,8-naphthalimide-tagged polyacrylate (PAA-F1) and 1-hydroxy-7-(6-methoxy-1,3-dioxo-1-benzo[de]isoquinolin-2()-yl)heptane-1,1-diyl-bis(phosphonic acid) (HEDP-F) by fluorescent microscopy (FM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Both antiscalants diminished the mean size of calcite crystals relative to the blank experiment. The behavior and localization of HEDP-F and PAA-F1 during calcite scale formation on membrane surface was found to be significantly different from the distribution in similar RO experiments with gypsum, reported earlier.