Optimization of reverse osmosis treatment process to reuse the distillery wastewater using Taguchi design

Abstract

In this study, the reverse osmosis (RO) treatment of distillery wastewater was studied using various operating conditions including pH, temperature, transmembrane pressure, and feed flow rate. Taguchi method was used to design the experiments and optimize the RO treatment process for the maximum permeate flux and removal of salinity and COD. L₉ (3⁴) orthogonal array for experimental design and the larger-the-better response category was applied to find optimum parameters. The optimum conditions were found to be as pH (6), temperature (45°C), transmembrane pressure (10 bar), and flow rate (300 l/h). Under these conditions, 80 l/hm² permeate flux was achieved with 91% of salinity removal and 85% of COD removal. The obtained results revealed that RO treatment technique was an effective treatment technology for the reuse of distilleries wastewater.

Keywords:

• Distillery wastewater
• Reverse osmosis
• Optimization
• Taguchi design
• Validation

Acknowledgements

This Project was supported by King Saud University, Deanship of Scientific Research, College of Sciences Research Center.