INDUSTRIAL WASTE-WATER TREATMENT WITH MEMBRANES - A UNITED-STATES PERSPECTIVE

Since the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more than 20 years ago, protection of the environment has steadily been moving up on the priority list of the American public. Concern over issues such as the ozone hole, the greenhouse effect, overflowing landfills, acid rain, destruction of the rain forests and over population have created an attitude of conservation and environmental responsibility throughout the country. The United States Congress has passed the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 which emphasizes "point-of-source" reduction, recycle or recovery. The membrane separation technologies of microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis possess characteristics which make them attractive as recycle and recovery processes. This paper details the testing requirements dictated by the specific applications and describes a number of case histories where membrane technologies have been evaluated for industrial wastewater treatment.