Preliminary study of electrodialysis with model salt solutions and industrial wastewater

Electrodialysis (ED) is applied in different fields of industry (Strathmann 2010). It has found wide application in water and wastewater treatment, stabilization of wine, whey demineralization and also for recovery of valuable components associated with the depuration of wastewater. New treatment processes can be designed by integration with other membrane processes as well as nanofiltration an reverse osmosis. Aim of the work is the study of electrodialysis process with some model salt solutions and the attempt to apply it to some industrial wastewater. Electrodialysis tests were mainly performed using model solutions containing nitrates, ammonia or metals. Few tests have been carried out on some real effluents as coke oven wastewater or olive mill wastewater, which were treated in the electrodialysis plant after reverse osmosis concentration. In the present paper some results about the ED treatment of solution containing high copper concentration will be shown.