Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filtration System for Manufacturing Facility
Ask Our Experts
Have a question? Need more information? Our experts can help. Call (315) 346-1489 or send us your question.
Aries designs wastewater Reverse Osmosis System to reduce industrial wastewater’s Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Sodium concentrations
A Pennsylvania manufacturer was given a new tighter wastewater discharge permit that it’s conventional chemical / physical wastewater treatment process could not meet. The manufacturer’s primary wastewater sources were cooling water blow-down and effluent from an existing wastewater treatment system. In addition to lower parameter limits, the new permit made the wastewater treatment systems plant’s effluent a point source that needed to comply with the new discharge limits prior to blending with the cooling water blow-down. The existing wastewater treatment system failed to meet the new limits for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Sodium, Aluminum and Zinc.
New Wastewater System Effluent Discharge Limits
| Unit | New Limit | Existing WWT Discharge | |
| BOD | mg/L | 300 | N/A |
| TDS | mg/L | 850 | 10,000 to 20,000 |
| Sodium | mg/L | 175 | 800 to 1,800 |
| Aluminum | mg/L | 10 | 4 to 15 |
| Zinc | mg/L | 0.5 | 10 to 20 |
Aries Chemical was asked to provide a solution to bring the facility’s effluent into compliance. Aries surveyed the existing wastewater treatment process, analyzed wastewater and recommended a Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration System. The RO system would process the current treated wastewater to remove the out of compliance parameters. Aries pilot RO system was brought on site to demonstrate that technology’s performance.
Aries piloted the RO portion of a combined MF / RO system that can operated as either a MF, RO or MF followed by RO treatment system. The Aries MF / RO system was designed to operate at approximately 1.0 gpm.
The pilot was run using the effluent from the manufacturer’s existing wastewater treatment system as RO feed water. The MF portion of Aries MF/RO was not used for this pilot. The pilot RO system’s effluent met the new wastewater discharge limit.
Based upon the pilot’s success the municipality and manufacturer agreed that RO technology was appropriate to meet the new lower limits. The municipality added a corrosivity limit to the RO systems discharge, because they were concerned that the RO permeate might corrode some of the sewer system’s infrastructure and components. To measure corrosivity a Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) limit of 0 to 2.0 LSI was added to the permit.
Aries designed and built a full-scale 600 psi 10 gpm wastewater RO system that included a Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) adjustment system. The system included the RO feedwater tank with UV disinfection, organo clay & activated carbon prefilters, RO, PLC, permeate tank and the permeate LSI adjustment system. The LSI system added calcium hardness with pH adjustment to meet the LSI limit.
The table below contains the new limit with typical RO and LSI adjustment system’s discharge values.
Full Scale Reverse Osmosis (RO) System Effluent
| Unit | New Limit | RO Permeate w/ LSI Adjust | |
| BOD | mg/L | 300 | 12 to 16 |
| TDS | mg/L | 850 | 275 to 350 |
| Sodium | mg/L | 175 | 15 to 25 |
| Aluminum | mg/L | 10 | 0.1 |
| Zinc | mg/L | 0.5 | < 0.05 |
| LSI | 0 to 2.0 | 0.5 to 1.0 |
For further product and technical assistance, contact your Aries Chemical Representative or our headquarters at (315) 346-1489. View a printable version of this RO Filtration System Case Study.
