Removal of phenol from coke-oven wastewater by cross-flow nanofiltration membranes

This study investigated the phenol rejection characteristics of some nanofiltration membranes during treatment of coke wastewater. Four different types of composite polyamide commercial nanofiltration membranes (Sepro, USA) were tested under different operating conditions including transmembrane pressure, pH and recovery rate. When pressure was increased from 4 to 16 bars, the percentage of rejection of phenol in the permeate increased from 72.5% to 97.7% while yielding a high flux of 118 litres per square meter per hour(LMH) at a volumetric cross flow rate of 800 litres per hour at pH 10 (in recirculation mode) in case of NF1 membrane. The effect of recovery rate on the rejection coefficient of phenol and flux was also studied in concentrated mode and found that a recovery rate of up 55% nanofiltration was successfully operated without much decline of flux and rejection coefficient. Finally, nanofiltration had great efficiency in phenol removal from industrial wastewater and was considered suitable regarding its operation.