Membrane Technology and Water Reuse in a Dairy Industry

Abstract

The dairy industry uses substantial amount of water to achieve the production process, especially for the maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness conditions. With this, is generating considerable volume of wastewater requiring treatment to meet the discharge standards before discarded? With the shortage of water resources and charging for water use, minimizing water consumption in industries is of paramount importance to main- tain its market competitiveness. In this sense, there has been increasing interest in the reuse of wastewater, in order to decrease the good water consumption by processes that do not require such high quality feature. Membrane separation processes are highlighted in generating good-quality reuse water that can meet the demand of various industrial processes. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the membrane separation processes for the treatment of dairy industry effluent to reuse.