Removal of Nickel (II) from Electroplating Wastewater through Reverse Osmosis Method

Subject Areas : environmental management

Seyyed Ahmad  Mirbagheri ¹ ()
Amin  Shams ² ()
Seyyed Hossein  Hashemi ³ ()
Hadi  Shams ⁴ ()

Received: 2008-04-08 Accepted : 2008-07-22 Published : 2010-04-03

Keywords: electroplating, reverse osmosis, nickel (II), water recovery, polyamide membrane,

Abstract :

Electroplating industrial waste is one of the most critical industrial waste problems. There is a growing interest in developing methods for recovering metals and water from plating waste stream using membrane technology. In this project, reverse osmosis (RO) technology has been studied for electroplating industries waste water treatment. Pilot tests on nickel plating wastewater with 18.5, 50 and 115 ppm Ni (II) concentration were delivered using polyamide thin film composite RO membrane. The results showed the average water recovery efficiency reduced to 68.3, 66.4 and 65.77 percent and average removal of nickel (II) reached down to 98.92, 98.67 and 98.65 percent when the working pressure reduced from 10 to 7.5 and 5 bar, respectively.