Potential of the integration of coagulation and ozonation as a pretreatment of reverse osmosis concentrate from coal gasification wastewater reclamation

Combination of coagulation and ozonation was used to treat brine derived from a three-stage reverse osmosis (RO) process during coal gasification wastewater reclamation. Effects of operating parameters on the removals of total organic carbon (TOC), color and UV absorbance at 254 nm (A₂₅₄) were investigated during coagulation and ozonation. All the removal efficiencies of TOC, A₂₅₄ and color of FeCl₃ coagulant are about twice those of AlCl₃ coagulant at the same molar dose since almost all the molecular weight fractions of RO concentrate (ROC) could be removed effectively by FeCl₃ coagulant while only the fractions of molecular weight > 3 k Da could be removed effectively by AlCl₃ coagulant. The TOC removal increases with the increasing of ozone dose and reaction temperature during ozonation of ROC after coagulation pretreatment. TOC and color of ROC after pretreated by coagulation could be further removed effectively during ozonation since ozonation can significant reduce the fluorescence response of all the fractions of effluent organic matter in ROC. It is unexpectedly found that the increase of A₂₅₄ is observed after ozonation, this is because the intensity of absorbance at 254 nm by the low molecular weight transformation products (<2 k Da) increases significantly with the reaction time after 30 min. The coagulation coupling with ozonation is efficient in the removals of both TOC and color of ROC.