Abstract:
The semiconductor industry is a fast-growing high-tech industry in China, which produces large amount of wastewater with various types of pollutants, resulting in difficult treatment. In the reclamation process of semiconductor industry wastewater, reverse osmosis (RO) has been an important pollutant removal unit, but membrane fouling has seriously affected its efficiency. In this paper, the types of the main pollutants in semiconductor industry wastewater are summarized, the main mechanism of the RO membrane fouling caused by the semiconductor industry wastewater and the related control methods are introduced, and the fouling control strategies are proposed. Different processes of semiconductor production will produce various types of wastewater, among which there are many types of pollutants with complex forms, and generally poor biodegradability. Generally, different types of wastewater are collected according to water quality, after corresponding pretreatment, some of them are combined for further treatment and enter the RO system. The RO treatment system of semiconductor industry wastewater reclamation faces serious membrane fouling problems. Metal ions or fluoride ions are prone to form inorganic scaling on the RO membranes, and surfactants tend to form organic fouling. RO membrane fouling caused by semiconductor wastewater can be controlled by methods of pretreatment, membrane cleaning and operating condition regulation, but most of the existing methods have limited efficiency. It is recommended that researchers can develop targeted pretreatment technology for key pollutants in the future. Moreover, combined with the semiconductor production process, an overall strategy for wastewater collection and reclamation treatment based on the key interaction of pollutants is proposed.