Abstract
Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) is a membrane separation process which may be used to remove dissolved organic solutes from water. In MEUF, surfactant is added to the aqueous stream and forms aggregates called micelles into which the solute solubilizes. The stream is then forced through an ultrafiltration filter with pore sizes small enough to reject the micelles containing the solute. In this work, the removal of n-hexanol, n-heptanol, and n-octanol from water using MEUF was studied. Alcohol rejections varied from 71% to 98.8% for the conditions studied, demonstrating the feasibility of the method. Rejection increased with increasing hydrocarbon chain length of the alcohol and decreasing alcohol/surfactant ratio. The alcohol in the permeate appears to be in equilibrium with the alcohol in the retentate, the total concentration difference being caused by the presence of micelles on the retentate side. Surfactant rejections were greater than 98% for all cases studied. Excellent fluxes were also observed.
Published Version
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