Influence of osmotic distillation on membrane absorption for the treatment of high strength ammonia wastewater

Osmotic distillation(OD) was found to be a coupled process in membrane absorption(MA) for the treatment of high strength ammonia wastewater. As a result, ammonia could not be concentrated in absorption solution(AS) as expected. The inhibition of the coupled OD in MA process was investigated as well as various factors affecting the inhibition. The results indicated that the coupled OD can be effectively inhibited by heating concentrated solution and cooling dilute solution. It was also found that experimental minimum inhibition temperature difference(MITD) between concentrated and dilute solutions was different when using polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) and polypropylene(PP) membranes respectively, which could be ascribed to material properties, such as OD and membrane distillation(MD) coefficients of the membranes. Experimental MITDs were found to be higher than theoretical MITDs which were calculated using a simplified method.