Early in the operation of a zero discharge water treatment system, which reclaims paper mill effluent to provide cooling tower makeup for a power plant, effects from the organic loading in the influent prevented operation of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) Units and hampered operation of Clarifier/Softeners, Brine Concentrators and a Crystallizer. Solutions implemented to remediate the problems included front-end treatment of the in fluent to improve oxidation and coagulation, down-stream nano-filtration of the wastewater to facilitate RO operation, and back-end charge neutralization and variation of the total dissolved solids (TDS) to organics ratio to improve crystallizer operation.
Keywords: zero discharge, recycled paper, paper mill effluent, organic loading, Reverse osmosis, nano-filtration, Brine Concentrators, Crystallizer, Clarifier/Softeners