Rinsing water from the tinplate production can be treated energy and resource efficiently with membrane technology. With this method the recycling of metals, acids and organic additives back into the electrolytic coating process and the afresh use of the filtrate for rinsing purposes are possible. In this work suitable membrane materials for nanofiltration as well as for reverse osmosis and the acid-resistant membrane module construction were examined. After systematic laboratory screening experiments a membrane plant with an exchange area of nearly 30 m(2) was successfully operated in the bypass of a tin coating line for the verification of the technical feasibility.