Desempenho e validação de um sistema com automação para processos de separação água/óleo com membranas cerâmicas.

Abstract

This work aims to study the performance and validation of system with automation to oily water separation processes with ceramic membranes. It was divided into two phases: laboratory-scale tests and tests with the system with automation. In the laboratory-scale tests, experiments to characterize the ceramic membrane were carried out with deionized water and synthetic effluent, aiming to estimate the behavior of membranes to assist the developing of the system with automation. To evaluate the performance of the water-oil separation systems with ceramic membranes the following parameters were analyzed: permeate flow (J, L/h.m2) and oil rejection rate. In the experiments with the automatic system the performance was evaluated in oil-water separating process with ceramic membrane, the synthetic effluent used followed the same conditions as the benchtop system. The experiments with synthetic effluent were simulated with oil concentration set at 20 mg/L. It was observed that the reduction of the permeate flux with the operation time is strongly dependent of the pressure and emulsified oil content, may be related to concentration polarization, inherent to membrane separation processes. However, the reduction of permeate flow was attenuated in the system with automation where backpulse and blackwash cleaning processes were used. The dispersed phase rejection rate, for all conditions analyzed, was greater than 97%. The backwash cleaning system having sodium hydroxide as cleaning agent was not effective to increase the permeate flow, but the cleaning agent performance was extremely satisfactory which indicates that the change of the cleaning agent in the process will increase the flow in the permeate stream. From the experiments carried out with the system with automation results demonstrate the potential for separation with ceramic membranes, for oily water treatment.