Kertész Szabolcs, Al-Tayawi Aws N, Gergely Gréta, Ott Bence, Gulyás Nikolett Sz, Jákói Zoltán, Beszédes Sándor, Hodúr Cecilia, Szabó Tamás, László Zsuzsanna
Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Szeged, Moszkvai Krt. 9, H-6725 Szeged, Hungary.
Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences, University of Szeged, Tisza Lajos Krt. 103, H-6725 Szeged, Hungary.
Materials (Basel). 2023 Apr 15;16(8):3117. doi: 10.3390/ma16083117.
This study investigates the enhancement of dairy wastewater treatment using chemical and physical pre-treatments coupled with membrane separation techniques to reduce membrane fouling. Two mathematical models, namely the Hermia and resistance-in-series module, were utilized to comprehend the mechanisms of ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fouling. The predominant fouling mechanism was identified by fitting experimental data into four models. The study calculated and compared permeate flux, membrane rejection, and membrane reversible and irreversible resistance values. The gas formation was also evaluated as a post-treatment. The results showed that the pre-treatments improved UF efficiency for flux, retention, and resistance values compared to the control. Chemical pre-treatment was identified as the most effective approach to improve filtration efficiency. Physical treatments after microfiltration (MF) and UF showed better fluxes, retention, and resistance results than ultrasonic pre-treatment followed by UF. The efficacy of a three-dimensionally printed (3DP) turbulence promoter was also examined to mitigate membrane fouling. The integration of the 3DP turbulence promoter enhanced hydrodynamic conditions and increased the shear rate on the membrane surface, shortening filtration time and increasing permeate flux values. This study provides valuable insights into optimizing dairy wastewater treatment and membrane separation techniques, which can have significant implications for sustainable water resource management. The present outcomes clearly recommend the application of hybrid pre-, main- and post-treatments coupled with module-integrated turbulence promoters in dairy wastewater ultrafiltration membrane modules to increase membrane separation efficiencies.
本研究探讨了采用化学和物理预处理结合膜分离技术来减少膜污染，从而强化乳制品废水处理的方法。利用了两种数学模型，即赫米亚模型和串联阻力模型，来理解超滤（UF）膜污染的机制。通过将实验数据拟合到四个模型中，确定了主要的污染机制。该研究计算并比较了渗透通量、膜截留率以及膜的可逆和不可逆阻力值。还对作为后处理的气体生成情况进行了评估。结果表明，与对照相比，预处理提高了超滤在通量、截留率和阻力值方面的效率。化学预处理被确定为提高过滤效率的最有效方法。微滤（MF）和超滤后的物理处理在通量、截留率和阻力方面的结果优于超声预处理后再进行超滤的情况。还研究了三维打印（3DP）湍流促进器减轻膜污染的效果。3DP湍流促进器的集成改善了流体动力学条件，增加了膜表面的剪切速率，缩短了过滤时间并提高了渗透通量值。本研究为优化乳制品废水处理和膜分离技术提供了有价值的见解，这可能对可持续水资源管理具有重要意义。目前的结果明确建议在乳制品废水超滤膜组件中应用混合的预处理、主处理和后处理，并结合模块集成的湍流促进器，以提高膜分离效率。
