There are membrane systems that have been in continuous use for 20 years. It is much more cost effective in the long run to buy over capacity initially so you can get several years more useful life out of the membranes. Reverse osmosis systems are very sensitive to plugging so the recycled stream must be carefully evaluated as to ionic and particulate content. Water directly from a scrubbing system probably shouldn't be recycled without proper pretreatment. A. Evaporation is an expensive way to concentrate solutions unless there is a lot of waste heat available.
Evaporation is the only practical way to get to zero discharge, but the cost is high.
The starting material is heated in an inert atmosphere to convert it to pure carbon. The way it is processed results in a very high surface area and an ability to adsorb various material. The capacity for both organic and inorganic materials is high but carbon is usually used for adsorbing organics. Each organic and each type of carbon have a different adsorption capacity. Carbon is used to adsorb organics, chromates, sulfides and chlorine.