Heavy metal removal using reverse osmosis

The aim of this work was to study reverse osmosis characteristics for copper, nickel and zinc removal from technological aqueous solutions. Reverse osmosis (RO) is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solution through a membrane that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side. A polyamide thin-film composite membrane TW30-1812-50 was used. The difference in flux decline is significant. There is a significant difference in flux decline depending on the anions of used heavy metal salts. The heavy metal concentration also has a significant influence on the membrane separation. There is also a significant difference in flux decline depending on the transmembrane pressure.