Removal of Cesium from Simulated Radioactive Wastewater Using a Novel Disc Tubular Reverse Osmosis System

Abstract

A novel disc tubular reverse osmosis (DTRO) system was designed and applied for the removal of cesium ions from the simulated radioactive wastewater to enhance the concentration factor (CF), which is usually low with a conventional reverse osmosis system (about tenfold volume reduction). In this study, a three-stage structure was proposed to perform the decontamination and concentration separately for the radioactive wastewater treatment at different stages. This novel DTRO system makes it possible to achieve both high retention index (∼99%) and CF (over 70) simultaneously. The system was operated at room temperature under ∼4 MPa for stages I and II (permeate stages) and 6 to 8 MPa for stage III (concentrate stage). The wastewater processing capacity reached 450 ℓ/h, and only ∼6 ℓ/h concentrate was produced. The DTRO system has the potential for application in the treatment of real radioactive wastewater produced in nuclear power plants.