Estudo da viabilidade do reúso da água rejeitada pelo sistema de osmose reversa em um serviço de hemodiálise

Abstract

The water crisis is now a real problem that affect millions of people and has placed the water at the center of great discussions and conflicts around the world. It is well known the growing concern about the preservation of this resource that is essential for the emergence of life and especially its maintenance. A United Nations (UN) report published in march 2015 states that if nothing is done, the world's water reserves can be reduced by 40 percent until 2030, in view of this, there is an urgent need to improve the management of this resource to ensure supply to the world's population. In hemodialysis, water plays a key role because it is through the reverse osmosis treatment process that the degree of purity required for dialysis is achieved, however, this process wastes a lot of water generating unnecessary expenses and damages to the environment. This study is a descriptive and analytical research of a quantitative and qualitative approach whose main objective was to verify the viability of the reuse of the water rejected by the reverse osmosis treatment process in the hemodialysis sector of the Onofre Lopes University Hospital, based in Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte. For such purpose, it was necessary to measure the amount of water discarded in a period of 30 days and to perform the physical-chemical and microbiological analysis of this water, to confirm the practicability of the reuse. Has been verified that the average of the discarded waste volume was 910, 4 liters per day and the results of the analysis of the water, from the microbiological point of view as well as physical-chemical, were satisfactory for water classification in several procedures of reuse perfectly achieving the four classes suggested by NBR 13969/97. The results of the study certainly will be useful to assist hospital management regarding the sustainable use of water resources, as well as their better reutilization and will also serve as a stimulus and database for future research.