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. 2023 Mar 11;13(3):325.
doi: 10.3390/membranes13030325.

Circular Economy Approach in Treatment of Galvanic Wastewater Employing Membrane Processes

Anna Kowalik-Klimczak  1 , Anna Gajewska-Midziałek  2 , Zofia Buczko  2 , Monika Łożyńska  1 , Maciej Życki  1 , Wioletta Barszcz  1 , Tinatin Ciciszwili  2 , Adrian Dąbrowski  2 , Sonia Kasierot  3 , Jadwiga Charasińska  3 , Tadeusz Gorewoda  3
Affiliations

Circular Economy Approach in Treatment of Galvanic Wastewater Employing Membrane Processes

Anna Kowalik-Klimczak et al. Membranes (Basel). .

Abstract

According to the idea of sustainable development, humanity should make every effort to care for the natural environment along with economic development. Decreasing water resources in the world makes it necessary to take action to reduce the consumption of this resource. This article presents the results of research conducted to improve the use of recyclable materials in line with the circular economy model. The research focused on the development of a technological solution for the recovery of raw materials from galvanic wastewater. The concept of a galvanic wastewater treatment system presented in the article includes wastewater pre-treatment in the ultrafiltration (UF) process and water recovery in the reverse osmosis (RO) process. In addition, the purpose of the work was to manage post-filtration waste (RO retentate) containing high concentrations of zinc in the process of galvanizing metal details. The obtained results indicate that it is possible to reduce the amount of sewage from the galvanizing industry by reusing the recovered water as technical water in the process line. The carried-out model tests of galvanizing confirmed the possibility of using RO retentate for the production of metal parts. The achieved results are a proposal to solve the problem of reducing the impact of galvanic wastewater on the environment and to improve the profitability of existing galvanizing technologies by reducing the consumption of water and raw materials.

Keywords: circular economy; galvanic wastewater; reverse osmosis (RO); ultrafiltration (UF); water recovery; zinc solution reuse.

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Conflict of interest statement

This manuscript’s authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Integrated membrane system for industrial wastewater treatment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Technological diagram of the integrated membrane system: UF—ultrafiltration; RO—reverse osmosis; 1, 2, 3—process tanks; F—feed; P—permeate; R—retentate.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Retention of individual galvanic wastewater components in (a) UF and (b) UF/RO processes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Appearance of zinc coating deposited on a flat carbon steel substrate (a) and industrial details (b) from baths prepared on the basis of the RO retentate (I) and tap water (II).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Surface morphology presented in optical microscope images ((a)—magnification ×1000, (b)—magnification ×2000) of zinc coatings obtained from (I) the RO retentate-based bath and (II) tap water-based bath.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Surface morphology showed in SEM images ((a)—magnification ×10,000, (b)—magnification ×25,000) of zinc coatings obtained from (I) the RO retentate-based bath and (II) tap water-based bath.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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