Treatability of household waste plastic garbage bag recycling industry wastewater with membrane

In this study, household waste plastic garbage bag recycling industry wastewater was treated by a membrane process to recycle water for using in the bags washing process. Two different ultrafiltration (UP150 and UP005) and nanofiltration (NF270 and NF90) membranes were tested. The steady-state permeate flux was obtained 14.9 and 19.2 L/m2.h at 5 bar for UP150 and UP005 membranes, respectively. However, the steady-state permeate flux was 12.9 and 8.9 L/m2.h at 20 bar for NF270 and NF90 membranes, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) was also tested for all membrane permeates and the highest COD removal efficiency was obtained for NF90 membrane. Thus, optimization was carried out using NF90 membrane and the effect of transmembrane pressure (10, 20, 30 bar) and solution pH (5, 7, 9) on COD removal efficiency was tested. The results showed that the highest steady-state permeate flux (23.5 L/m².h) and COD removal efficiency (95.1%) were obtained at 30 bar and pH 9. After the optimization of the membrane type and operating conditions, 75% recovery was obtained to re-use in the bags washing process. The concentrate stream was treated by an activated sludge process to manage membrane concentrate and to provide discharge standards. The maximum COD removal efficiency in biological treatment for membrane concentrate stream was 96.2% under steady-state condition using a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) operated at 10 days of sludge retention time and 12 h of hydraulic retention time. The proposed combined process including membrane and activated sludge processes was successfully used to recover wastewater.