Separation Science and Technology, Vol.42, No.12, 2583-2594, 2007
Treatment of aqueous ionic surfactant solutions by dynamic ultrafiltration
This paper investigates the reduction of concentration of an ionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate) present in an aqueous solution by ultrafiltration. A dynamic filtration system consisting of a metal disk rotating near a flat circular organic membrane was used in this study. Membranes cut off tested were 10, 20, and 50 kDa. The maximum rejection rate was 92% at 10 kDa. Permeate fluxes kept increasing with transmembrane pressure until at least 1400 kPa, reaching 400 Lh(-1)m(-2) at 10 kDa and 950 at 50 kDa for a rotation speed of 1000 rpm. However, raising the rotation speed above 500 rpm at 900 kPa had only a moderate effect on performance, indicating probably strong interactions between surfactant molecules and the membrane and that the permeate flux was mostly limited by pressure.