Use of Ligand-modified Micellar-enhanced Ultrafiltration to Selectively Separate Copper Ions from Wastewater Streams

Download or read book Use of Ligand-modified Micellar-enhanced Ultrafiltration to Selectively Separate Copper Ions from Wastewater Streams written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The selective removal of target ions from an aqueous solution containing ions of like charge by ligand-modified micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (LM-MEUF), is presented. In LM-MEUF, surfactant and specially tailored ligand are added to the contaminated stream. The surfactant forms aggregates called micelles, the hydrocarbon core of which the ligand complexed with the target species will solubilize. The surfactant is chosen to have the same charge type as the target ion; therefore, other ions (with similar charge) will not associate with the micelle, which makes the separation of the target ion selective. The solution is then processed by ultrafiltration, using a membrane with pore size small enough to block the passage of the micelles. In this study the divalent copper is the target ion in the solution containing divalent calcium. The surfactant is cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) and the ligand is 4-hexadecyloxybenzyliminodiacetic acid (C[sub 16]BIDA). Experiments were conducted with batch stirred cells and the results have been compared to separation that take place under a variety of conditions in the LM-MEUF process. Rejections of copper of up to 99.8% are observed, with almost no rejection of calcium, showing that LM-MEUF has excellent selectivity and separation efficiency.