Global supply of commercial reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is growing exponentially due to rapid population growth, industrialization, and urbanization. The continuous demand for enormous quantity of drinking water has brought about process improvements and technological advancements in membrane preparation. The transformation of used RO membranes into nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration membranes by opening up the pores using chemical treatment by inexpensive oxidizing agents could be one of the cost-effective options. The present study investigates the chemical oxidation of the indigenously synthesized RO membrane using aqueous sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). The performance of the membrane was evaluated by conducting experiments under varying operating conditions of operating time, feed pressure, and total dissolved solids (TDS) in raw water for calculation of flux and salt rejection (%). From an initial flux of 25.2 L/m² h and TDS rejection of 97.5% for original RO membrane, the values reached 80 L/m² h and 25.5%, which is in NF range, after a reaction time of 780 min with 4000 ppm concentration of NaOCl oxidizing agent. Further extension of treatment time to 900 min enhanced the flux to 130 L/m² h with salt rejection lowering to 5.67%. Membrane cleaning was performed efficiently using an advanced technique in which chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) was used in combination with citric acid. This combination ensured rapid cleaning with restoration of water flux and % salt rejection. The process was scaled up to pilot plant level using RO membranes modified to NF range of pore size. Permeate water enriched with minerals was further packed using an indigenously designed semi-automatic bottling unit. The studies revealed that the indigenously developed RO membranes are easy to alter into high-performance NF membranes. Overall, the process for production of packaged drinking water was cost-effective, easy to operate, and environmentally friendly.

由于人口的快速增长，工业化和城市化，全球商业反渗透（RO）膜的供应呈指数增长。对大量饮用水的持续需求带来了膜制备工艺的改进和技术的进步。通过使用廉价的氧化剂进行化学处理来开孔来将用过的RO膜转化为纳滤（NF）和超滤膜可能是一种经济高效的选择。本研究调查了使用次氯酸钠水溶液（NaOCl）对本地合成的反渗透膜的化学氧化作用。通过在不同的操作时间，进料压力，以及原水中的总溶解固体（TDS），以计算通量和脱盐率（％）。从25.2 L / m的初始通量开始² 小时，原始RO膜的TDS排斥率为97.5％ ，在与4000 ppm浓度的NaOCl氧化剂反应780分钟后，该值达到80 L / m ² h和25.5％（在NF范围内）。处理时间进一步延长至900分钟可将通量提高至130 L / m ²  h，脱盐率降低至5.67％。使用先进的技术，其中二氧化氯（ClO ₂）与柠檬酸结合使用。这种结合确保了快速清洁，并恢复了水通量和除盐率。该工艺使用修饰为NF孔径范围的RO膜按比例扩大至中试工厂水平。使用本地设计的半自动装瓶单元进一步包装富含矿物质的渗透水。研究表明，本土开发的反渗透膜很容易变成高性能的纳滤膜。总体而言，包装饮用水的生产过程具有成本效益，易于操作且环保的特点。