Removal of boron compounds in pressure-driven desalination of the Black Sea water

The article has investigated the process of removing boron from the water of the Black Sea during its pressure-driven desalination using an OPMN-P nanofiltration membrane (ZAO NTTs Vladipor) and an ESPA-1 reverse-osmosis membrane (Hydronautics). It has been shown that the boron removal degree in a two-stage treatment (nanofiltration and reverse osmosis) is much lower than in a single-stage one (reverse osmosis). For the first time it was shown that there is a substantial impact of salts of calcium and magnesium on the boron retention coefficient with reverse-osmosis membranes. We have studied the conditioning process in terms of the content of boron (using an Amberlite IRA-743 boron-containing sorbent and the method of reverse osmosis in the alkaline medium) permeate obtained in the two-stage desalination of the Black Sea water.