Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration for arsenic(V) removal: effect of main operating conditions and dynamic modelling

In this work arsenic removal by micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) was investigated using cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) in ceramic membrane apparatus. Permeability tests and discontinuous diafiltration tests were performed in different operating conditions to evaluate the effect of membrane pore size (20 and 50 nm), transmembrane pressure, pH, surfactant concentration (1-3 mM), and arsenic concentration (10-40 mg/L) on permeate flux decline, arsenic, and CPC rejections. These preliminary experimental results showed that a ceramic membrane with large pore size allows treament of high fluxes of concentrated arsenic-bearing solutions even by using low surfactant concentrations. Arsenic concentration in the permeate was at the 1 ppm level, with feed As concentrations (10 ppm) that are larger than those generally used in MEUF studies and with CPC amounts that are lower than the usual ones. In addition, operating conditions adopted in these tests obtained CPC concentrations in the permeate always lower than its critical micellar concentration (0.9 mM). Dynamic simulations of discontinuous two-step diafiltration tests allowed a simple and adequate representation of the performance of the process especially for 1 mM CPC, while discrepancies for 2.5 mM CPC level denoted complex interactions between CPC and As.