To recover gold, this work used a novel direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) reactor with a hybrid electrolytic process. Analytical results demonstrate that permeate flux increased as feed -2 -1 temperature and feed flow rate increased. Permeate flux increased from 2.8 to 17.6 kg m h when -2 -1 temperature increased from 30 to 70 °C, and increased from 9.2 to 19.9 kg m h when the feed fl...

This study is the first attempt to investigate the effect of total hardness and ionic strength on coagulation performance and the floc characteristics of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4). Membrane fouling under different total hardness and ionic strength conditions was also evaluated during a coagulation-ultrafiltration (C-UF) hybrid process. Coagulation experiments were performed with two simula...

Multi-objective optimization using genetic algorithm (GA) is carried out for the desalination of brackish and sea water using spiral wound or tubular modules. A few sample optimization problems involving two and three objective functions are solved, both for the operation of an existing plant (which is almost trivial), as well as, for the design of new plants (associated with a higher degree of...

This work aimed at evaluating the influence of enzyme concentration, temperature, and reaction time in the lactose hydrolysis process in milk, cheese whey, and whey permeate, using two commercial β-galactosidases of microbial origins. We used Aspergillus oryzae (at temperatures of 10 and 55°C) and Kluyveromyces lactis (at temperatures of 10 and 37°C) β-galactosidases, both in 3, 6, and 9 U/mL c...

In corn wet milling, dry matter can be separated from liquids in process streams with centrifuges or vacuum belt filtration (VBF). Because separations usually are not complete, dry matter can be lost in the liquid streams (overflow from the gluten thickener centrifuge and filtrate from VBF). This represents a loss of nutrients, especially protein, to low valued coproducts and reduces quality of...

Although traditional artificial neural networks have been an attractive topic in modeling membrane filtration, lower efficiency by trial-and-error constructing and random initializing methods often accompanies neural networks. To improve traditional neural networks, the present research used the wavelet network, a special feedforward neural network with a single hidden layer supported by the wa...

In this paper, a method of Micellar Enhanced Ultrafiltration (MEUF) with Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is proposed to remove phosphate ions from treated domestic wastewaters from the reclamation station of University Campus of Toledo (Spain). This technique is able to reach phosphate rejection coefficients higher than 99% (a phosphate concentration in permeate of 1 mg/L if feed conc...

In this study, an ultrasonic irradiation technique was utilized to mitigate the fouling of polyethersulfone (PES) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. The use of ultrasound at 20 kHz was applied to a dead-end microfiltration cell in order to mitigate fouling caused by the presence of colloidal bentonite particles. The effect of ultrasonic power and pulse duration on the permeate flux r...

Cross-flow ultrafiltration of macromolecular solutions in a module with microchannels is expected to have the advantages of fast diffusion from the membrane surface and a high ratio of membrane surface area to feed liquid volume. Cross-flow ultrafiltration modules with microchannels are expected to be used for separation and refining and as membrane reactors in microchemical processes. Though t...

The stability and performance of a two-stage anaerobic membrane process was investigated at different organic loading rates (OLRs) and Hydraulic Retention Times (HRTs) over 200 days. The Hydrolytic Reactor (HR) was fed with the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW), while the leachate from the HR was fed continuously to two Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors (SAMBR1 and 2). Th...