Influence of Surfactants on the Removal of AOX Using Micellar- Enhanced Ultrafiltration

This paper presents the development of a model for evaluating adsorbable organic halogens’ (AOX) removal efficiency during wastewater treatment by using the micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) technique. Surfactants can form larger aggregates (micelles) were prepared into which AOXs dissolve and are then retained by the membrane. Synthetic wastewater samples containing certain concentrations of surfactants, AOXs, and electrolytes (expressed in terms of conductivity). Regression analysis was used to examine firstly, the effect of anionic surfactants concentrations, and those of non-ionic surfactants and electrolytes on AOX removal and secondly, the effects of anionic and non-ionic surfactants removal efficiences, and electrolytes, on AOXs removal. A relationship was generated for each of the components, showing the removal of AOX as a linear functions of the concentrations of each component. The equations were validated through variance analysis. This study shows that AOXs removal efficiencies largely depend on the formation and removal of anionic surfactant micelles from the membrane. The equations obtained during this study could be used for predicting the extent to which AOXs can be removed if the input parameters are known.