Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants discharge concentrated brine to the environment which is detrimental to the receiving water bodies flora and fauna. This research paper aims at providing a cost effective solution by extracting calcium salts as calcium oleate and magnesium salts as struvite from reverse osmosis reject brine which cause water pollution. Calcium oleate was prepared by adding oleic acid to reject brine in a batch reactor with mechanical agitation. Struvite was prepared by reaction with ammonium hydroxide and phosphoric acid. Calcium oleate exhibited amorphous nature and struvite exhibited orthorhombic structure with average size of 75-80nm as characterized by x-ray diffractometer and Fourier Transformation Infra Red analyzer Calcium oleate finds application in cosmetic and food industries. Since struvite finds application as a slow release fertilizer it’s potential as a fertilizer was tested for in-house cultivation of redbean plants. It was observed that there is an increase in plant height and leaf area for plants grown with struvite than with plants grown without addition of struvitefor a test period of 30 days. Hence this paper proposes an environmental friendly approach for reducing the waste load of reverse osmosis plants and the recovery of mineral salts.
