H ₂ O ₂ oxidation – CaO precipitation pretreatment combining forward osmosis for electroless nickel spent tank liquid (ENSTL) reduction

The electroless nickel spent tank liquid (ENSTL), as a typical hazardous waste, contains a variety of refractory organic substances as well as heavy metals and inorganic salts. Generally, ENSTL is delegated for disposing by qualified hazardous waste disposal departments in China. However, the temporary storage, transportation, and higher entrusted disposal expenses increase the burden on enterprises producing the hazardous ENSTL. This paper explored an oxidation/precipitation pretreatment and forward osmosis (FO) combined process for ENSTL reduction. 400 mmol/L Hydrogen peroxide and 5.0 wt% calcium oxide were selected as the optimal pretreatment in order to minimize the osmotic pressure of ENSTL, by which the conductivity was significantly reduced from 50.8 mS/cm to 26.8 mS/cm. As a result, the concentrating factor (N) could be dramatically increased from 2.45 by the direct FO to 8.71 by the combined system. Accordingly, the average water flux during the 24 h concentrating cycle increased from 2.47 L/(m²·h) to 4.56 L/(m²·h). TOC rejection rate decreased from 90.23% to 84.39% due to the transformation of organic matter forms by the chemical oxidation during the pretreatment. Meanwhile, TP, Ni and NH₄⁺ rejection rates decreased to a certain extent, which may related to the mitigation of membrane fouling by the pretreatment.