Abstract
Environmental problems occurring in isolated or hardly accessible inhabited areas can be adequately addressed using membranes and membrane processes.In the present paper, the recuperative separation of aluminum ion from the aluminum sulfate-treated water through permeation using capillary composite membranes, from polypropylene with ethylene propylene diene terpolymer sulfonic acid (PP / S-EPDM) inclusions is followed by the reaction of complexation with 8-hydroxy quinoline. The installation used for studying the permeation process provides a usable surface area of 1 m2, the source phase solution volume is 3 L, and the receiving phase is 300 mL. The two phases are recirculated through the outside of the membranes (SP) and respectively through membranes (RP), by means of individual peristaltic pump that can provide flow variations between 2 and 200 mL / min by varying the intensity of the power supply. The optimal operating parameters were determined: operating time, pH and receiving phase flow, thus achieving an ionic flux (IR) above 10-11 mol / cm 2. s and a recovery factor (RF) over 90%.
Keywords: composite membranes; EPDM; pertraction; aluminum separation; 8-hydroxy quinoline