Removal of heavy metals by ultrafiltration
Sustainable process-product development & green chemistry
Sustainable & Clean Technologies-I: Extraction & Remediation (T1-4P)
Keywords: ultrafiltration, heavy metals, ceramic membranes, wastewater treatment
Large amounts of polluted water are often obtained from the chemical process industry, which require a mandatory treatment before being disposed of. Therefore, successful treatment processes are needed to reduce the high levels of pollutants contained in water. Heavy metals cannot usually be treated in a conventional biological system because they are toxic to microorganisms. However, in several processes, heavy metals are employed as homogeneous catalyst, so that recovering and/or recycling of those metals to the reaction unit is almost mandatory. In this study, ultrafiltration is presented as a useful technique to recover heavy metals present in aqueous solutions, without the need of adding further substances. Specifically, recovery of iron, copper and chromium is presented. Ultrafiltration is conducted in ceramic tubular membranes, which have been chosen because of their high mechanical, chemical and thermal resistance. Due to the occurrence of fouling, an advantage of ceramic membranes is that they can be easily cleaned with strong acids to recover their initial permeability. In this study, different parameters influencing heavy metal retention by continuous filtration with ceramic membranes are presented. Thus, effect of transmembrane pressure, pH, ionic strength and metal concentration has been studied. The results show that chemical speciation of metals in aqueous solution is strongly correlated with the retention because of the interaction between metallic species and membrane surface materials.
See the full pdf manuscript of the abstract.
Presented Monday 17, 13:30 to 15:00, in session Sustainable & Clean technologies - I: Extraction-Remediation (T1-4P).
