Application of direct contact membrane distillation for saline dairy effluent treatment: performance and fouling analysis

Abstract

Membrane distillation is getting increasing attention thanks to its advantages in terms of energy consumption and final permeate quality in addition to its resistance against highly corrosive media which forms an appealing solution for industrial wastewater treatment. Despite its advantages, one of the most challenging issues in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) is membrane fouling and wetting. In the present research work, saline dairy effluent discharged from hard cheese industry was pretreated by macrofiltration (MAF) and ultrafiltration (UF) and processed by DCMD to investigate the extent of the aforementioned issues. Effluents pretreated by UF have led the best process performance with stable flux values at different operating conditions. Fouling has occurred in all the experiments, though their effect on the flux behavior and membrane wetting was different from one feed to the other. Changing the flow rate and the temperature difference have affected slightly the membrane wettability for all feed qualities. In all experiments, the permeate has maintained a good quality with low electrical conductivity that did not exceed 70 μS/cm and low total organic carbon < 2 mg/L.

Current available treatment technologies for saline wastewater and land‐based treatment as an emerging environment‐friendly technology: A review

“…For instance, techniques such as rotating bio‐disc contractor, moving bed biofilm, fed‐batch reactor, and sequencing batch reactor work efficiently when the salt concentration is less than 1% but does perform efficiently when the amount of salt in wastewater is high (Bassin et al, 2011, 2012). The salt buildup in sludge cause alteration in the growth and biomass properties, which results in inconsistency and decrease in the elimination of organic pollutants (Abdelkader et al, 2019).…”

Food‐processing wastes

“…Abdelkader et al (2019) researched issues related to membrane fouling and wetting while using direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) to treat high‐salinity wastewater effluent from “hard cheese” production. Effluents treated by ultrafiltration (UF) were found to have the best flux performance.…”

Assessment of pilot direct contact membrane distillation regeneration of lithium chloride solution in liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems using computer simulation

“…Membrane distillation (MD), a hybrid thermal-driven separation process, has been increasingly explored for treatment of various hyper saline waters due to its distinguishing attributes (Nguyen et al 2018;Abdelkader et al 2019;). In the MD process, a hydrophobic microporous membrane is used to separate a saline water feed from a fresh distillate stream.…”