Page 90 - Industrial Wastewater Treatment, Recycling and Reuse

Industrial Wastewater Treatment, Recycling, and Reuse: An Overview 65

2. Development of designer solvents for improved extractions along with
better understanding of the process and enhanced physical property
database.
3. Development of new robust membranes with increased surface area per
unit volume and membranes suitable for effluent treatment that can
withstand dirty liquids. Newer configurations are needed for reducing
fouling problems and for improved performance, along with
confidence-building measures in the application of newer methodolo-
gies such as MBR.
4. Development of new ion exchange materials/separations with better
selectivity for refractory pollutants and improved regeneration charac-
teristics for increased profitability, especially in the removal of heavy
metals and valuable chemicals.
5. Development of newer cavitation devices and processes for effluent
treatment.
6. Development of an efficient strategy using judicious selection of separa-
tion method and an apposite combination of methods ranging from pre-
cipitation to extraction/adsorption/ion exchange/cavitation/biological.
7. Development of hybrid technologies where controlling parameters
common to two or more processes in combination are still not clear
in most cases.
8. Development of a strategy for continuous monitoring of the cost of
operation and measures for cost reduction. In principle, combining suc-
cessive process steps can certainly cut the cost and improve treated
water quality. In the wastewater treatment area, there is huge opportu-
nity for process intensification/integration along with individual pro-
cess/material modifications.
9. Development of reactive separation for effluent treatment, which is not
seriously considered, probably for the reason that very low concentra-
tions are involved. Here, newer devices of hydrodynamic cavitation that
allow oxidation reaction on a miniaturized scale can be most useful. Also,
combinations of reaction and separation processes—reactive distillation,
reactive absorption, reactive extraction or reactive membrane separa-
tion—are possible. This area, however, still requires a lot of developmen-
tal efforts for practical industrial wastewater treatment applications.
10. Development of wastewater treatment applications in the areas of elec-
trochemical and nano technology.
Electrochemical technology, an area still not so common in wastewater
treatment, can treat a vast range of contaminants of high concentrations such