Abstract
Large quantities of salty whey are produced during cheese manufacturing, posing an environmental problem. Here the feasibility of electrodialysis with bipolar membranes (EDBM) is evaluated for the first time as a mechanism to transform this saline effluent into sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid for reuse within the factory. This work also seeks to find the maximum acid and base concentration that can be achieved. For a pure sodium chloride solution, maximum acid/base concentrations of 3.6 ± 0.2 mol/L and 3.0 ± 0.3 mol/L are achieved using a stack of ten membranes including four bipolar membranes. The effects of proton leakage and water migration limit the generation of higher concentrations. The presence of calcium phosphate also has a negative effect on the EDBM performance, suggesting that pretreatment to remove this impurity is needed. In industrial practice, this pretreatment could be achieved by recycling around 9% of the base produced to precipitate these salts. The use of a partially cyclic operation allows 99% demineralization of pretreated salty whey, with high purity acid/base solutions of concentration near 3.5 mol/L. This work demonstrates EDBM as an effective process for transforming salty whey into chemicals for clean in place and ion exchange resin regeneration.
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