Efficient performance of the combination of treatment processes for oilfield produced water generated from oil tank dewatering was investigated in the study presented below. Byproduced wastewater is generated in significant quantity during exploitation of crude oil and gas from onshore and offshore production operations. This wastewater, commonly referred to as "produced water", has distinctive characteristics, due to their organic and inorganic compounds. However, these characteristics change from well to well. The treatment process investigated here consists of a pre-treatment step utilizing microfiltration (0.1 and 0.2µm pore size filters) and/or a simulated batch dissolved air flotation (DAF), and a multistage posttreatment step utilizing cross-flow ultra-(0.05µm pore size and 20kDa molecular weight cutoff filters), and nanofiltration (1 and 0.75kDa MWCO filters). Filters used were ceramic membranes. To determine the separation capability of the processes described, various parameters, such as trans-membrane pressure varying from 0.5 to 2 bar, cross-flow velocity in the range of 0.6 to 1.3m/s, influent oil concentration ranging from 32 to 5420 parts per million (ppm) and different membrane cleaning methods used were investigated. The average permeate flux varied from 3.4 to 3300 l/h*m²*bar, total oil removal was up to 99.5% and total organic carbon removal reached 49%.
Utilization of renewable resources is becoming increasingly important, and only sustainable processes that convert such resources into useful products can achieve environmentally beneficial economic growth. Wastewater from the pulp and paper industry is an unutilized resource offering the potential to recover valuable products such as lignin, pigments, and water [1]. The recovery of lignin is particularly important because it has many applications, and membrane technology has been investigated as the basis of innovative recovery solutions. The concentration of lignin can be increased from 62 to 285 g∙L−1 using membranes and the recovered lignin is extremely pure. Membrane technology is also scalable and adaptable to different waste liquors from the pulp and paper industry.
Functional foods such as oligosaccharides have attained significant acceptance in Japan and are attracting interest elsewhere.Beneficial physiological properties are attributed to oligosaccharides. Here, we describe the continuous production of oligosaccharides from a low-cost substrate (lactose) in a continuous membrane-assisted reactor (both polymeric and inorganic membranes were tested). Different enzymes, a number of feed concentrations, and different average residence times were investigated. The enzymes were used in their native form. Retention and recycling of the enzyme was successful, while the products together with some unreacted substrate and byproducts were removed as the ultrafiltration permeate. For the ultrafiltration, a steady-state flux of about 20 l/m 2 hr was achieved. A maximum oligosaccharide concentration of over 40 %w/w was reached with an average residence time of 1 hr and a feed lactose concentration of 31 %w/w. Pilot scale experiments based on the laboratory tests are also reported.
Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven separation process that employs a hydrophobic membrane as a barrier for IntroductionMembrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven separation technique using microporous hydrophobic membranes and performing on the principles of vapor-liquid equilibrium under different configurations. In this process, only volatile compounds (mainly water) of the feed stream evaporate at the membrane pore entrance, cross the membrane pores in vapor phase to finally be either condensed or removed as a vapor from a membrane module. The hydrophobic nature of the membrane prevents the pores from wetting by capillary forces. MD is known as a promising technology for many applications such as desalting seawater, brackish water, highly saline water [1,2], and removing organic compounds and heavy metals from aqueous solutions [3,4]. MD has also been used to manage waste water such as radioactive waste waters, oily waste waters [5], where the product could be safely discharged to the environment or the waste streams could be reused in an appropriate industrial activity. In biotechnology and food processing applications, MD has also been found as a promising tool, for instance, for removing ethanol and other metabolites from fermentation broths [6], for gentle concentration of valuable compounds in fruit juices [7], and in herb extract such as Ginseng [8].MD has many attractive features as compared to conventional separation processes. Low operating temperatures (~30-70°C) is one of them since the feed is not necessarily heated up to the boiling point like in thermal distillation. Thus, MD may advantageously utilize alternative energy sources, such as solar energy, geothermal energy, waste heats from power plant, etc. [9]. Compared with pressure driven membrane filtration processes such as nanofiltration or reverse osmosis, lower operating pressure translates to lower equipment costs and increased process safety. It is worth highlighting that membrane fouling in MD seems to be less of a problem for many applications than that in pressure-driven filtration processes [10].MD is, however, attended by some drawbacks. Compared to reverse osmosis, MD is known to have a lower permeate flux, and the susceptibility of permeate flux to processing conditions, particularly to temperature and concentration, is considerably high. Also, the trapped air within the membrane pores
Lignin is a heterogeneous, phenolic and polydisperse biopolymer which resists degradation due to its aromatic and highly branched structure. Lignin is the most abundant renewable source of aromatic molecules on earth. The valorization of lignin could therefore provide a sustainable alternative to petroleum refineries for the production of valuable aromatic compounds. Even so, paper mills and lignocellulose feedstock biorefineries treat lignin largely as a waste product. In paper mills, 98% of technical lignin is incinerated for internal energy recovery while only 2% is used commercially (e.g. for the production of aromatics such as vanillin). The reasons for the underutilization of lignin include its recalcitrance to degradation and the challenge of separating mixtures of numerous degradation products. The successful valorization of lignin in the future thus depends on a broad understanding of biological and technical degradation processes, and the implementation of efficient product purification strategies. This article describes enzymatic, photocatalytic and thermochemical lignin degradation processes and considers purification methods for valuable lignin-derived degradation products. We focus on the potential of membrane-based separation technology, including data from our own recent research.
Pulp and paper waste water is one of the major sources of industrial water pollution. This study tested the suitability of ceramic tubular membrane technology as an alternative to conventional waste water treatment in the pulp and paper industry. In this context, in series batch and semi-batch membrane processes comprising microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration, ceramic membranes were developed to reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and remove residual lignin from the effluent flow during sulfite pulp production. A comparison of the ceramic membranes in terms of separation efficiency and performance revealed that the two-stage process configuration with microfiltration followed by ultrafiltration was most suitable for the efficient treatment of the alkaline bleaching effluent tested herein, reducing the COD concentration and residual lignin levels by more than 35% and 70%, respectively.
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