Research of phosphate removal from water on reverse osmotic filters

Eutrophication of natural water bodies caused by an excess of biogenic substances is one of the global environmental problems of modern times. Usually, phosphorus is a limiting biogenic element, the concentration of which determines the intensity of eutrophication processes in water bodies. Therefore, it is important to develop methods aimed at preventing excessive amounts of phosphates from entering the environment. To remove phosphates from water, typically used biological degradation technologies, which usually proceed very slowly and depend on the conditions under which the process takes place. Also, Biogenic elements can be removed by using ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and chemical methods. However, the disposal of concentrated solutions becomes an issue with these methods. Baromembrane purification methods, particularly reverse osmosis, are becoming increasingly important in the field of water treatment and purification and are essential in creating efficient and low-waste complex technologies for water purification from biogenic compounds. The study investigated the processes of removing orthophosphates from distilled and artesian water using a low-pressure reverse osmosis membrane Filmtec TW30-1812-50. The dependence of membrane productivity and selectivity on the concentration of phosphates and the degree of permeate rejection was determined. Was found that residual concentrations of phosphates in the permeate increase with the increase in the degree of permeate rejection. The lowest residual concentrations of phosphates were observed at the initial concentration of up to 10 mg/dm3. The highest residual phosphate concentrations were observed at initial concentrations above 900 mg/dm3. At the same time, the membrane productivity constantly decreased with increasing feed concentration and degree of permeate recovery due to the increased osmotic pressure on the membrane. The selectivity of the membrane was highest at an initial concentration of up to 10 mg/dm3 and slightly decreased at a rejection rate of 20-50% for initial phosphate concentrations of 100-900 mg/dm3. At the maximum degree of permeate rejection (90%), the selectivity of the membrane reached 97-99 % and decreased with an increase in phosphate concentrations, which is due to a change in the pH of the medium, hydrolysis of phosphates, hydration of ions, and concentration polarization. The membrane selectivity for phosphates in solutions in artesian water was slightly lower (95-99 %), which was due to the competing influence of chlorides, sulfates, and bicarbonates, as well as a decrease in the pH of the solution to 7.52-7.67, which promotes the hydrolysis of o-phosphates.