Separation of Dissolved Phenolics from Aqueous Waste Stream using Micellar Enhanced Ultrafiltration.

The micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) process has been used for the separation of phenol and o-cresol from aqueous solutions at room temperature (30 + 2°C) using a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and polyethersulfone membrane of molecular weight cut-off 10 kDa. The effect of the cross-flow rate, the surfactant to pollutants (S/P) concentration ratio in feed, the variation of pollutants concentration in the feed keeping S/P constant, the presence of Na2SO4 and NaCl salts and mixed surfactants on the rejection of each solute and permeate flux have been studied in detail. The % rejection of phenol and o-cresol without using the surfactant observed was 24% and 41% respectively, which was increased to 60% for phenol and 80% for o-cresol at S/P ratio of 8. The effect of salts was also investigated. There was no significant effect of the cross-flow rate on the % rejection of the solutes. The effect of the membrane pore size was also investigated using 1 KDa and 30 KDa PES membranes. Characteristic parameters of MEUF such as the distribution coefficient, micelle loading, and the micelle binding were also estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]