Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration of eosin dye using hexadecyl pyridinium chloride

Surfactant-based separation of toxic eosin dye is studied to estimate the potential of micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) using cetyl(hexadecyl) pyridinium chloride (CPC) as the cationic surfactant. The optimum feed CPC concentration is found from the experimental results of pure CPC solution in a batch cell. It is in the range of 10-20 kg/m(3) to have a reasonable permeate flux and lower surfactant concentration in the permeate. Selecting 10 kg/m(3) as the feed surfactant concentration, MEUF experiments are conducted to study the retention characteristics of eosin dye in the continuous cross flow system. The effects of operating conditions, i.e., feed dye concentration, operating pressure and cross flow rate on the permeate flux and observed retention of dye are investigated.     

Biosorption of palladium(II) from aqueous solution by moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum) biomass: equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies

Arsenite (As(III)) and arsenate (As(V)) removal by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) were investigated with self-made polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes in the present work. Permeability and ion rejection efficiency of the membrane were tested before the arsenic removal experiments. A maximum permeate flux 20.90 kg/m(2)h was obtained, and due to the hydrophobic property, the PVDF membrane had high rejection of inorganic anions and cations which was independent of the solution pH and the temperature. The experimental results indicated that DCMD process had higher removal efficiency of arsenic than pressure-driven membrane processes, especially for high-concentration arsenic and arsenite removal. The experimental results indicated that the permeate As(III) and As(V) were under the maximum contaminant limit (10 microg/L) until the feed As(III) and As(V) achieved 40 and 2000 mg/L, respectively. The 250 h simultaneous DCMD performance of 0.5mg/L As(III) and As(V) solution was carried out, respectively. The permeate arsenic was not detected during the process which showed the PVDF membrane had stable arsenic removal efficiency. Membrane morphology changed slightly after the experiments, however, the permeability and the ion rejection of the membrane did not change.     

Potable water recovery from As, U, and F contaminated ground waters by direct contact membrane distillation process

In this study, the feasibility of the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process to recover arsenic, uranium and fluoride contaminated saline ground waters was investigated. Two types of membranes (polypropylene, PP; and polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE) were tested to compare the permeate production rates and contaminant removal efficiencies. Several experiments were conducted to study the effect of salts, arsenic, fluoride and uranium concentrations (synthetic brackish water with salts: 1000-10,000 ppm; arsenic and uranium: 10-400 ppb; fluoride: 1-30 ppm) on the desalination efficiency. The effect of process variables such as feed flow rate, feed temperature and pore size was studied. The experimental results proved that the DCMD process is able to achieve over 99% rejection of the salts, arsenic, fluoride and uranium contaminants and produced a high quality permeate suitable for many beneficial uses. The ability to utilize the low grade heat sources makes the DCMD process a viable option to recover potable water from a variety of impaired ground waters.     

Removal of anionic contaminants by surfactant modified powdered activated carbon (SM-PAC) combined with ultrafiltration

A variety of inorganic contaminants may form toxic oxyanions in aqueous systems which pose significant hazard to human health and the ecosystem. In order to remove the oxyanions from aqueous stream effectively, surfactant-modified powdered activated carbon (SM-PAC) combined with ultrafiltration (UF) was proposed in this study. As the cationic surfactant, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), adsorbs on the surface of PAC, the zeta potential of PAC increases to +40 mV. Oxyanions such as chromate, ferricyanide and arsenate bind on SM-PAC by electrostatic interaction, then the contaminants bound with SM-PAC can be separated by UF membrane. 0.3 mM of chromate and ferricyanide are removed completely with 4.0 g/L of SM-PAC. In case of arsenate, the removal efficiency was lower than chromate and ferricyanide. It is considered that the competition occurs among anionic pollutants on the limited binding sites of SM-PAC and lower valence of arsenate results in the lower removal efficiency. High permeate flux is maintained during filtration. The spent SM-PAC was regenerated by the concentrated Cl⁻ solutions. NaCl solution whose molar Cl⁻ concentration is 1.4 times higher than the contaminants bound on SM-PAC was optimal for the regeneration. Regenerated SM-PAC exhibited similar adsorption capacity to fresh SM-PAC. SM-PAC combined with UF can effectively remove anionic contaminants. Moreover, the simple and efficient regeneration process is proposed.     

Investigation of process performance and fouling mechanisms in micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration of nickel-contaminated waters

Nickel removal from aqueous solution by micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) with relatively low transmembrane pressures was investigated at varying conditions of sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) and nickel concentrations, transmembrane pressure and sodium chloride content. Process employed in continuous filtration mode, could be operated within a short time of 30 min presenting high rejection of nickel and SLES at high transient fluxes. Under the effect of increasing transmembrane pressure, the rejection of nickel and SLES increased, but the transient flux decreased. The existence of salt caused to decrease both rejections and flux. Nickel rejection, SLES rejection and flux were established as 98.6%, 75.7% and 0.304 m(3)/m(2)h, respectively, for the conditions of surfactant to metal (S/M) ratio of 10 (SLES = 2 mM), transmembrane pressure of 250 kPa without NaCl content at the end of 90-min operation time. The analyses related to the membrane fouling were carried out using adsorptive fouling models. It has been determined that, the fouling occurs as a dynamic function of various process conditions studied, and depends strongly on mechanisms controlled by the formation of gel layer and its bridging over the pore entrances simultaneously together with partial constriction of membrane pores by surfactant adsorption.     

壳聚糖膜渗透汽化传递行为的研究

以壳聚糖膜及硫酸交联壳聚糖膜为基础、以乙醇－水体系为研究对象，考察了浓度、温度、交联对壳聚糖膜以及硫酸交联壳聚糖膜的传递行为的影响。实验结果表明，对壳聚膜糖膜和和硫酸交联壳聚糖膜来说，渗透通量与分离性能强烈地取决于原料组成。组发在膜内溶胀分配关系随原料浓度的改变而改变，这种溶胀过程的热力学分配关系直接支配着渗透气化的分离性能。随着温度的上升，乙醇与水的渗透通量急剧增加，而溶胀度变化不大。表明在一定     

Investigation of charging behavior of PS particles in nonpolar solvents

The charging behavior of PS (polystyrene) particles dispersed in nonpolar solvent containing surfactant AOT (sodium di-2-ethylhexylsulfosuccinate) was researched by phase angle light scattering (PALS). The effects of the AOT concentration, the particle concentration and the particle size on the zeta potential of the particles were analyzed systemically. The results showed, at different particle concentrations (expressed in the volume fraction of 10(-5)-10(-3)), that the zeta potential could be adjusted by surfactant AOT over a wide concentration range of 0.001-100 mM. An obvious difference of zeta potential on particle concentration was revealed between the high AOT concentrations (beyond 10 mM) and the low ones (below 1 mM). Meantime, it was found that the relationship of particle size to zeta potential showed a great discrepancy between the dilute particle concentrations (below 10(-4)) and the concentrated ones (beyond 6 × 10(-4)). These findings were consistent with the mechanism of preferential adsorption of the charged micelles in nonpolar solvent.     

Effect of PAC addition on immersed ultrafiltration for the treatment of algal-rich water

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition on the treatment of algal-rich water by immersed ultrafiltration (UF), in terms of permeate quality and membrane fouling. Experiments were performed with a hollow-fiber polyvinyl chloride ultrafiltration membrane at a laboratory scale, 20-25°C and 10 L/(m(2) h) constant permeate flux. UF could achieve an absolute removal of Microcystis aeruginosa cells, but a poor removal of algogenic organic matter (AOM) released into water, contaminants responsible for severe membrane fouling. The addition of 4 g/L PAC to the immersed UF reactor significantly alleviated the development of trans-membrane pressure and enhanced the removal of dissovled organic carbon (by 10.9±1.7%), UV(254) (by 27.1±1.7%), and microcystins (expressed as MC-LR(eq), by 40.8±4.2%). However, PAC had little effect on the rejection of hydrophilic high molecular weight AOM such as carbohydrates and proteins. It was also identified that PAC reduced the concentrations of carbohydrates and proteins in the reactor due to decreased light intensity, as well as the MC-LR(eq) concentration by PAC adsorption.     

一种用于从水中分离挥发性有机化合物的疏水性渗透汽化中空纤维复合膜

研制出一种名为VOC-SEP200新型中空纤维疏水性复合膜，并考察了这种复合膜从水中分离BTEX(苯、甲苯、乙苯和二甲苯)的性能．这4种芳香碳氢化合物是工业有机废水中的一组有代表性的污染物，本研究的最终目的是想从现实的工业废水中回收这些化合物．采用料液在纤维中孔流动的方式，系统考察了进料液流速、操作压力、温度和进料液浓度对膜分离效率及膜性能的影响．结果显示，随着进料液流速的提高，BTEX的通量随之增大．这是由于随着进料液流速的提高，浓度极化的影响会减少，同时BTEX和水的分离因子会有显著增大．结果还显示，膜的性能随膜横向的驱动力降低而提高，其最佳的渗透压范围是10．7～13．3kPa(即80～100mmHg)，此时BTEX通量达到最大平稳值，同时水的通量最小．提高渗透压可减少操作费用，同时可增强分离效果，和预期的情况一样，BTEX和水的渗透通量都随着温度和进料浓度的提高而增大，但再进一步提高浓度和温度，则对水通量不产生影响．水通量在初始阶段的增加可以归因于膜的溶胀，水通量不再随温度和浓度的进一步升高而增加，可以归因于水分子的聚集与膜的溶胀达到了平衡，     

内部热能回收式多效膜蒸馏用于海水淡化及浓盐水深度浓缩

利用自制的具有高效内部热量回收功能的多效膜蒸馏组件对不同浓度的氯化钠水溶液进行浓缩研究.考察进料温度、浓度、流速对膜通量、造水比和脱盐率的影响.实验结果表明,料液加热温度T3升高时膜通量和造水比随之明显增加,而脱盐率保持不变;料液流速增加使膜通量增加,而造水比随之降低,脱盐率几乎不受影响;随着料液浓度的增加,膜的通量和造水比逐渐降低,脱盐率略微减小但影响很小.当料液中氯化钠浓度较低时,该过程的最大膜通量为6.8L/(m2·h),造水比为12.5;当料液中氯化钠浓度大于15％时,膜通量为5.2 L/(m2·h),造水比为6.2,脱盐率可达99.99％.实验结果表明,多效膜蒸馏技术可有效应用于海水淡化及常规海水淡化过程,例如反渗透和多效蒸发过程所副产浓盐水的深度浓缩和淡水生产.     

The use of ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes for the purification of cork processing wastewater

Filtration experiments in batch concentration mode (with recycling of the retentate stream) of the cork processing wastewater were performed in laboratory filtration membrane equipment, by using four commercial membranes: two UF membranes with MWCO of 20,000 and 5000 Da, and two NF membranes with an approximate MWCO of 150-300 Da. The filtration experiments of the selected wastewater were performed by modifying the most important operating variables: transmembrane pressure, tangential velocity, temperature, and the nature and MWCO of the membranes. The evolution of the cumulative permeate volumes and permeate fluxes with processing time were analysed, and it was established that the steady-state permeate flux was reached for a volume retention factor of 2. The effect of the mentioned operating conditions on this steady-state permeate flux was discussed. The effectiveness of the filtration treatments was determined by the evaluation of the rejection coefficients for several parameters, which measure the global pollutant content of the effluent: COD, absorbance at 254 nm, tannic content, color, and ellagic acid. Finally, the resistances in series model was used for the evaluation of the resistances to the permeate flux, and it was concluded that the contribution to the total resistance of the fouling resistance (combined external plus internal) was higher than the inherent resistance of the clean membrane.     

Osmotic-pressure model with permeability analysis for ultrafiltration in hollow-fiber membrane modules

The effects of operating conditions on the permeate flux for ultrafiltration of aqueous solutions of Dextran and Polyvinylpyrrolidone in hollow-fiber membrane modules have been investigated experimentally based on the osmotic-pressure model with the permeability analysis. The correlation equations for pure-water permeability after solute adsorption and fouling on the membrane have been obtained as functions of the transmembrane pressure and solution concentration. The theoretic prediction of permeate fluxes agrees well in tendency with the experimental data.     

聚醚砜膜提纯乳糖的研究

以聚醚砜(PES)为膜材料,聚乙烯吡咯烷酮(PVP)为添加剂,N,N-二甲基乙酰胺为溶剂,采用相转化法制备了对PEG的截留分子量为20 000的聚醚砜超滤膜.通过对操作压力、料液的温度和浓度等条件的变化对蛋白质截留率、膜通量及乳糖透过率影响的分析,研究了不同的影响因素对乳糖超滤效果的影响规律.并确定了最佳工艺条件:压力在0.3 MPa左右较适宜,温度为50~60℃,料液浓度为100~150 g/L,处理时间为45~60 min.比较了不同清洗剂对PES膜超滤性能恢复的效果.结果显示,当超滤1 h通量减少一半时,用0.5%的NaOH清洗20 min后就可以恢复70%的膜通量.     

Toxic metal ion separation by cellulose acetate/sulfonated poly(ether imide) blend membranes: effect of polymer composition and additive

Toxic heavy metal ion removal from industrial effluents are gaining increased visibility owing to environmental concern and saving precious materials. In this work, an attempt has been made to remove the valuable metal ions using modified ultrafiltration (UF) blend membranes based on cellulose acetate (CA) and sulfonated poly(ether imide) (SPEI) were prepared in the presence and absence of additive, poly(ethylene glycol) 600 (PEG600) in various compositions. Prepared membranes were characterized in terms of pure water flux (PWF), water content and membrane hydraulic resistance. High flux UF membranes were obtained in the range of 15-25 wt% SPEI and 2.5-10 wt% PEG600 in the polymer blend. The molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of the blend membranes were determined using protein separation studies found to vary from 20 to greater than 69 kDa. Surface morphology of the blend membranes were analysed with scanning electron microscopy. Studies were carried out to find the rejection and permeate flux of metal ions such as Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) using polyethyleneimine as the chelating ligand. On increasing the composition of SPEI and PEG600, the rejection of metal ions is decreasing while the permeate flux has an increasing trend. These effects are due to the increased pore formation in the CA/SPEI blend membranes because of the hydrophilic SPEI and polymeric additive PEG600. In general, it was found that CA/SPEI blend membranes displayed higher permeate flux and lower rejection compared to pure CA membranes. The extent of separation of metal ions depends on the affinity of metal ions to polyethyleneimine to form macromolecular complexes and the stability of the formed complexes.     

Application of nanofiltration for the rejection of nickel ions from aqueous solutions and estimation of membrane transport parameters

The present work deals with the application of a thin-film composite polyamide nanofiltration membrane for the rejection of nickel ions from aqueous wastewater. The operating variables studied are feed concentration (5-250ppm), applied pressure (4-20atm), feed flowrate (5-15L/min) and pH (2-8). It is observed that the observed rejection of nickel ions increases with increase in feed pressure and decreases with increase in feed concentration at constant feed flowrate. The maximum observed rejection of the metal is found to be 98% and 92% for an initial feed concentration of 5 and 250ppm, respectively. The effect of pH on the rejection of nickel ions and permeate flux are studied, and found that the variation in pH is having more effect on the latter than the former. The experimental data are analyzed using membrane transport models; combined-film theory-solution-diffusion (CFSD), combined-film theory-Spiegler-Kedem (CFSK) and combined-film theory-finely porous (CFFP) models; to estimate membrane transport parameters and mass transfer coefficient, k. Also, enrichment factor, concentration polarization modulus and Peclet number are found from various parameters. From CFFP model the effective membrane thickness and active skin layer thickness are found.     

Insights into nanofiltration of textile wastewaters for water reuse

Textile industry constitutes nowadays one the largest consumers of water, and consequently the wastewater reuse can be a profitable operation. In this study, the decontamination of pure dyes solutions (Remazol Turquoise Blue G, Remazol Yellow GR and Lanaset Blue 2R) and synthetic textile wastewaters was evaluated in a nanofiltration (NF) cross-flow cell, using polyamide NF membranes, NF90 and DK, with molecular weight cut-off between 200–400 Da and 150–300 Da, respectively. Permeate flux and the color reduction were evaluated for the different dye solutions under different temperature and pH conditions and, NaCl, wetting and dispersant concentrations. DK membrane showed the best results in terms of permeate flux for all the dye solutions tested. The highest permeate flux was achieved for higher temperatures under acidic to neutral pHs values, resulting in almost 100 % color removal for all situations.     

Biological treatment and nanofiltration of denim textile wastewater for reuse

This study aims at coupling of activated sludge treatment with nanofiltration to improve denim textile wastewater quality to reuse criteria. In the activated sludge reactor, the COD removal efficiency was quite high as it was 91+/-2% and 84+/-4% on the basis of total and soluble feed COD, respectively. The color removal efficiency was 75+/-10%, and around 50-70% of removed color was adsorbed on biomass or precipitated within the reactor. The high conductivity of the wastewater, as high as 8 mS/cm, did not adversely affect system performance. Although biological treatment is quite efficient, the wastewater does not meet the reuse criteria. Hence, further treatment to improve treated water quality was investigated using nanofiltration. Dead-end microfiltration (MF) with 5 microm pore size was applied to remove coarse particles before nanofiltration. The color rejection of nanofiltration was almost complete and permeate color was always lower than 10 Pt-Co. Similarly, quite high rejections were observed for COD (80-100%). Permeate conductivity was between 1.98 and 2.67 mS/cm (65% conductivity rejection). Wastewater fluxes were between 31 and 37 L/m2/h at 5.07 bars corresponding to around 45% flux declines compared to clean water fluxes. In conclusion, for denim textile wastewaters nanofiltration after biological treatment can be applied to meet reuse criteria.     

Enhancement of electrokinetic remediation of arsenic spiked soil by chemical reagents

An enhanced electrokinetic remediation process for removal of arsenic, presented as As(V) form, from spiked soil has been investigated with groundwater (GW) and chemical reagents of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC, a cationic surfactant), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and citric acid (CA) under potential gradient of 2.0-3.3V/cm for 5 days treatment. The removal efficiency of As(V) in EK-EDTA system was better than that in other two EK systems. As potential gradient increased from 2.0V/cm to 3.0V/cm, the removal efficiency of As(V) was increased from 35.4% to 44.8% in EK-EDTA system. It showed that the arsenic removal could be enhanced by selecting suitable chemical reagent and increasing potential gradient. The intensive of electroosmotic flow towards the cathode caused a significant retardation of electromigration of arsenic towards the anode. The quantity of As(V) collected in anode reservoir was 1.4-2.5 times greater than that in cathode reservoir for all EK systems. It implied that As(V) removal was directly related to the electromigration rather than electroosmosis mechanism in EK systems. A further investigation need to be conducted to achieve higher removal efficiency of As(V).     

Humic substance-enhanced ultrafiltration for removal of cobalt

It is well known that the membrane separation process combined with surfactant micelle (micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration) or polyelectrolyte (polyelectrolyte-enhanced ultrafiltration) can remove heavy metal ions or radionuclides effectively. However, the complexing agent, surfactant or polyelectrolyte remained in effluent is a serious disadvantage of these methods. In this study, humic substances (HS) were used as complexing agents instead of synthetic chemicals. The HS are sorts of natural organic matters and their functional groups such as carboxyl and phenyl groups can bind with the cation and form complexes. The effects of HS concentration and pH on the removal of cobalt were investigated. At the HS concentration of 3g/L and pH of 6, over 95% of cobalt was removed by regenerated cellulose membrane with molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 3000. As the HS concentration increased, the removal of cobalt was also enhanced because of the increase in binding sites (functional groups). The removal of cobalt increased from 72.5% to 97.5% as pH increased from 4 to 8 at the HS concentration of 3g/L. It resulted from the more deprotonation of functional groups in humic acid at higher pH.     

Clean operations in the tanning industry: aqueous degreasing coupled to ultrafiltration

 A process of aqueous degreasing is proposed, avoiding the use of organic solvents, in order to reduce fat substances present in sheepskins. Efficiency of the new process was increased coupling the degreasing to a pressure-driven membrane operation such as ultrafiltration. Increasing ultrafiltration time from 200 to 300 minutes yielded an increase of fats removal from 46% to 55% of the initial content. At 52  °C, the permeate flux decreased only 12.7% in 300 minutes. Recycling the permeate, that is the aqueous surfactant solution, permitted to save fresh water significantly compared to the open-washing system. Studies of membrane cleaning, using an enzymatic washing solution, showed a restore of the initial flux. A theoretical analysis was developed to decribe the behaviour of the mentioned system. Received: 11 February 1999 / Accepted: 12 May 1999