Coagulation and filtration of nanoparticles in wastewater from Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP)

The Hsinchu Sciencebased Industrial Park (HSIP) is a "hightech" manufacturing base in Taiwan. Wastewater from the HSIP contains numerous nanoparticles, which are difficult to remove by conventional coagulationsedimentation processes, and are the main foulants to ultrafiltration (UF) and reverseosmosis (RO), membrane in filtration. This investigation observed that the coagulation rates of nanoparticles in wastewater could be significantly increased by raising the solution temperature to over 65¢XC, thus yielding large and compact aggregates. The proposed thermal treatment could considerably reduce the fouling potentials of UF and RO membranes, and thus represents a suitable pretreatment for producing clean water from HSIP wastewater.