Recovery of surfactant SDS and Cd2+ from permeate in MEUF using a continuous foam fractionator

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of foam fractionation to recover valuable surfactant (SDS) and metal ion (Cd²⁺) in the permeate of micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF). The effects of operating factors, such as time, air flow rate, feed flow rate, liquid height, foam height, feed surfactant concentration, ethanol concentration and temperature on separation characteristics were studied in the continuous operation. When the concentrations of surfactant (SDS) and metal ion (Cd²⁺) in the feed solution were 500 mg/L and 10 mg/L, an enrichment ratio of 3.1 was achieved for SDS along with 52% removal fraction, as well as 99.35% Cd²⁺ was removed, after optimization of different process parameters. As the optimized results, the air and liquid flow rates were 100 L/h and 5 L/h, liquid and foam heights were 45 cm and 66 cm, respectively, sparger pore size was 10 μm. The Cd²⁺ concentration in the effluent was lower than 0.1 mg/L which could meet the integrated wastewater discharge standard (the first grade of national discharge standards in China).