EDTA fouling in dead-end ultrafiltration of low level radioactive wastewater

EDTA is widely used as a detergent, and finally enters into wastewater. The influence of EDTA on ultrafiltration of low level radioactive wastewater (LLRW) was investigated under different operation conditions. As the main organic pollutant, EDTA led to unrecoverable membrane fouling and the normalized flux decreased from 100% to 85% depending on its concentration. The clogging caused by EDTA increased the surface roughness of the membrane, leading to the flux reduction. Both nuclide rejections and depositions on the membrane surfaces were enhanced with EDTA addition, due to the strong complexation of the nuclides with EDTA. However, Ag deposition on the membrane decreased slightly in the presence of EDTA, which may be caused by the stronger attraction of Ag to the unmodified membrane than that to the EDTA-modified one. Transmembrane pressure (TMP) and molecular weight cut off (MWCO) of membranes had negligible effects on membrane fouling, while the nuclide rejections by membrane and the depositions of nuclides on membrane both decreased significantly when the TMP increased to 0.2 MPa and MWCO increased from 5 kDa to 30 kDa. Based on these results, it clearly showed that EDTA even at a low concentration had strong effects on the performance of UF treating LLRW. Therefore, it is suggested for industrial application that pretreatments to reduce EDTA or alkaline/ultrasonic washing involved in UF process were necessary to reduce the nuclide depositions on the membrane surfaces and irradiation dose of membrane surface.