Reverse Osmosis Plant

Process flow diagram of RO

 Why RO is Required

• Effluent treatment through Reverse Osmosis in Aluminum smelter is a exemplary

implementation in the country with complete management of RO reject through
forced evaporation in solar ponds.

• This provides the treated effluent the fitness to be re used in any process
application inside the plant leading to 100% recycling.

• This reduces plant's fresh water consumption resulting in water saving and
conservation of natural resources.

• Fluoride reduction in the treated effluent to a level of <1ppm eliminates water

pollution and provides a safe environment.
 Salient Features

• It has 50 m3/hour effluent treatment capacity.

• Use of conventional water filtration techniques like Sand Filters and Activated Carbon
Filters with state of art techniques like Ultrafiltration System and Reverse Osmosis
filtration to get highest level of purity.

• Use of RO technology for effluent treatment particularly fluoride in aluminium smelter

effluent is one of its kind in major smelting industry.

• Accelerated RO reject evaporation through installation of mist fans (atomizers) for

increasing surface areas of the rejects.

• Use of solar panels for heating the air which is blown through the RO rejects for faster
evaporation.

• Advantage over other fluoride treatment options like ion exchange methods where in
regeneration of resin, resin replacement and other operational inefficiencies are involved.
Reverse Osmosis – Impact on effluents
Impact of Reverse
Osmosis on effluents –
Fluoride Level <1 ppm

Fluoride Concentration - RO inlet vs RO

outlet 19.02

16.27

11.44 11.00

7.98

0.53 1.00 0.81 0.95 0.85

MARCH ' 13 APRIL '13 MAY '13 JUNE '13 JULY '13

RO inlet RO outlet
 Key Benefits of RO
• Fully automated system without any manual intervention.

• Consistency in output treated water quality even with variant inputs.

• Ensures hygienic working environment and reduces operators' exposure to hazards.

• Recycling of effluent water for any industrial application.

• This system can be used for treating fluoride contaminated ground water for
domestic application.

• Zero discharge industrial wastes to ambient water.

 Ultra-Filtration & Reverse Osmosis snap shot

Sand and Carbon filters Ultra Filtration

Working principle of Reverse Osmosis
Reverse Osmosis works by using a high pressure pump to increase the pressure on
the salt side of the RO and force the water across the semi-permeable RO
membrane, leaving almost all (around 95% to 99%) of dissolved salts behind in
the reject stream. The amount of pressure required depends on the salt
concentration of the feed water. The more concentrated the feed water, the more
pressure is required to overcome the osmotic pressure.

The desalinated water that is de-mineralized or deionized, is called permeate (or

product) water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that
did not pass through the RO membrane is called the reject (or concentrate)
stream.

Figure-3 -Diagram for Working principle of Reverse Osmosis

As the feed water enters the RO membrane under pressure (enough pressure to
overcome osmotic pressure) which goes to drain or can be fed back into the feed water supply
in some circumstances to be recycled through the RO system to save water. The
water that makes it through the RO membrane is called permeate or product
water and usually has around 95% to 99% of the dissolved salts removed from it.
It is important to understand that an RO system employs cross filttion rather than
standard filtration where the contaminants are collected within the filter media.
With cross filtration, the solution passes through the filter, or crosses the filter,
with two outlets: the filtered water goes one way and the contaminated water
goes another way. To avoid buildup of contaminants, cross flow filtration allows
Ultra-Filtration & Reverse Osmosis snap shot

Solar Heaters and Mist Fan RO Filter

Thank you