Pervaporation-Based Hybrid Processes in Treating Phenolic Wastewater: Technical Aspects and Cost Engineering

Abstract

In this study, the feasibility of combining pervaporation with adsorption in a hybrid process to recover phenol from wastewater is analyzed with the technical aspects and the cost of the processes taken into account. The pervaporation unit in the hybrid process is combined with a decanter on the permeate side and an adsorption unit on the retentate side. Two modes of regeneration, steam and heat, are considered for the adsorption unit. Through comparisons of the stand-alone units with the hybrid processes, we found that hybrid processes were feasible economic alternatives. In addition to meeting the environmental standard, the hybrid processes also recovered over 98% of the phenol at a concentration of 76% (wt). Even though the cost data showed that the use of heat regeneration for the adsorption unit is the cheaper option, the integration of steam regeneration improves the phenol recovery rate to over 99%. A sensitivity analysis of the economic boundaries of the hybrid SEPARATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 36(15), 3311-3335 (2001) ORDER REPRINTS processes revealed that the membrane life cycle and not the membrane cost is the key cost parameter in the hybrid processes. The advantages of the hybrid process are further increased when the processes are scaled up. Overall, this study demonstrates that pervaporation-based hybrid processes that combine pervaporation, adsorption, and a decanter could be used effectively to recover phenol from industrial waste streams.

Membrane design for extractive membrane bioreactor (EMBR): Mass transport, developments, and deployment

“…A possible concept is illustrated in Figure 9. As a concluding observation it is noted that successful pervaporation applications generally involve hybrid processes [22,104]. Thus the success of EMBRs might be dependent upon the development of hybrid processes.…”

“…In 1994, the first utilization of EMBR was reported to extract and detoxify the toxic organics present in chemical wastewater [21]. Unlike the pervaporation systems in development at the same time [22][23][24], its application to the recovery of phenolics reached pilot scale. Since then, the development and application of various membranes, modules and setup configurations begin to accelerate in this era.…”

A Systematic Approach towards Synthesis and Design of Pervaporation‐Assisted Separation Processes

“…Although PV itself was introduced by Kober in 1917 [8] and the basic concept of the PV-assisted distillation process was first proposed by Binning and James in 1958 [9], the process was not implemented before the late 1980s [10]. Whereas Lipnizki et al [10,11] provide an elaborate review of the major applications of PV in industry, Baker [12] summarizes that current PV systems are commercially available for basically two applications. The first and most important is the removal of water from concentrated alcohol by means of hydrophilic membranes, whereas the second commercial application of PV is the removal of small amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from contaminated water by means of hydrophobic membranes.…”