Surfactant Recovery from Water Using Foam Fractionation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of foam fractionation to recover surfactant from water. A simple continuous mode foam fractionation was used and three surfactants were studied (two anionic and one cationic). The effects of air flow rate, foam height, liquid height, liquid feed surfactant concentration, and sparger porosity were studied. This technique was shown to be effective in either surfactant recovery or the reduction of surfactant concentration in water to acceptable levels. As an example of the effectiveness of this technique, the cetylpyridinium chloride concentration in water can be reduced by 90% in one stage with a liquid residence time of 375 minutes. The surfactant concentration in the collapsed foam is 21.5 times the feed concentration. This cationic surfactant was easier to remove from water by foam fractionation than the anionic surfactants studied.