Estudo de um sistema híbrido de tratamento de água com membrana cerâmica e resina trocadora iônica.

Abstract

Water is a form of energy which is essential for life and to maintain ecosystems. Nowadays, the waters in our planet are subject to high pollution levels becoming increasingly scarce. In this context, the technological advances have put in the market alternative water treatment processes, for example, the membrane separation processes. Due to the degradation of the hydric resources, the use of these processes becomes one more treatment option for the production of good quality water. Ceramic membranes have been gaining space in the market due to diverse advantages, like long useful life, a cheaper manufacture cost, easy cleaning and resistance to high temperatures. The purification of water through ionic exchange resins is called demineralization, this process removes ions present in water, through cationic and anionic resins. The present work had the aim to analyse the performance of a hybrid system comprised of ceramic microfiltration membranes packed with ionic exchange resins for water treatment. The system was evaluated by means of permeate and concentrate flux behaviour with time, residence time and physical-chemical properties. For the studied operating pressures (1,0 bar, 2,0 bar, 3,0 bar e 4,0 bar), the permeate flux behaviour varied as a function of the turbidity of the feed. It was concluded that the operating pressure of 2.0 bar showed less variation in the permeate flow as function of turbidity of the feed water and for the turbidity of 3.0 uT and 4.0 uT, this pressure produced more permeate. In addition, the hybrid system has shown efficient removal of colour, turbidity and chemical parameters for non-salty waters, producing high quality treated water with a low energy consumption.