Nanofiltration process on dye removal from simulated textile wastewater

Dyestuffs removal from industrial wastewater requires special advanced technologies, since dyes are usually difficult to remove by biological methods. In this study nanofiltration process was used for removal of different dyestuffs from solutions. The rate of dye removal by spiral wound nanofiltration membrane in film thin composite MWCO=90 Dalton, was evaluated for four classes of dyes acidic, disperse, reactive and direct in red and blue dyes medium. Dye absorbance was measured by spectrophotometric method (2120 Standard Method 1998). Effects of feed concentration, pressure and total dissolved solids concentration were also studied. Results showed that increasing dye concentration lead to higher color removal up to 98 % and at different pressures for acidic and reactive blue were up to 99.7 %. Different types of dyes had no effect on dye removal and permeate flux. During 2 h of the operation time, permeate flux decline was increased. Permeate fluxes for different types of red dyes were from 16.6 to 12.6 (L/m(2)/h.) and for blue dyes were from 16.6 to 10.45 (L/m(2)/h.). Presence of sodium chloride in dye solutions increased dye rejections nearby 100 %. Chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies for reactive blue, disperse blue, direct and disperse red dyes were also approximately 100 %.