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

  • Advanced Oxidation Process for Sustainable Water Management
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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.

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Abbreviations

CA:

contact angle

DCMD:

direct contact membrane distillation

EDX:

energy dispersive X-ray

LEP:

liquid entry pressure

MAF:

macrofiltration

MAF-UF-WW:

pretreated effluent by macrofiltration and ultrafiltration

MAF-WW:

pretreated effluent by macrofiltration

PP:

polypropylene

PTFE:

polytetrafluoroethylene

R-WW:

raw effluent

SEM:

scanning electron microscopy

TOC:

total organic carbon

UF:

ultrafiltration

∆T :

temperature difference

Ƞth:

thermal efficiency

Tco:

permeate outlet temperature

Tei:

feed inlet temperature

Vc:

permeate velocity

Ve:

feed velocity

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a fellowship grant received by Ms. Sana Abdelkader in the frame of the program “Bourse d’Alternance” provided by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Water Research and Technologies (CERTE), Technopark of Borj Cedria, P.B. 273 - 8020, Soliman, Tunisia

    Sana Abdelkader & Latifa Bousselmi

  2. Technische Universitaet Berlin (TU Berlin), Sekr. KF 2, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Sana Abdelkader & Sven Uwe Geissen

  3. Fraunhofer ISE, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Florian Gross, Daniel Winter, Joachim Went & Joachim Koschikowski

Authors
  1. Sana Abdelkader
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  2. Florian Gross
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  3. Daniel Winter
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  4. Joachim Went
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  5. Joachim Koschikowski
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  6. Sven Uwe Geissen
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  7. Latifa Bousselmi
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Correspondence to Latifa Bousselmi.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Abdelkader, S., Gross, F., Winter, D. et al. Application of direct contact membrane distillation for saline dairy effluent treatment: performance and fouling analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 18979–18992 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2475-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2475-3

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