REMOVAL OF CHLORINATED AND BROMINATED ALKANES FROM DRINKING-WATER USING REVERSE-OSMOSIS

Membrane use in water treatment has historically focused on desalinati on. With the development of new membrane materials, attention began to focus on reverse osmosis and pervaporation as alternatives to traditi onal water treatment processes. This paper addresses the use of revers e osmosis in removing one class of organic compounds, the alkanes (chl orinated and brominated hydrocarbons) from drinking water, using six m embranes: a cellulose acetate, a polyamide (hollow fibre), and four di fferent types of thin-film composites. The thin-film composite membran es removed 80-95% of the low molecular weight (100-250) alkanes tested .