Volatile fatty acids separation by ion exchange chromatography in fixed bed column

摘要

Repeatedly produced and accumulated in anaerobic wastewater treatment, the volatile fatty acids (VFA), are byproducts of this process with great commercial and environmental interests and high potential for reuse in food and chemical industries for example. In the work reported here, the technique used to separate the mixture of volatile fatty acids (VFA) in fractions of acetic, propionic, butyric, isobutyric and isovaleric acids is the ion exchange, shown by Leite (2005)~([1]) as a good technique for the separation of these substances. To achieve this goal, the work includes the study of equilibrium isotherms, kinetics of adsorption and desorption and separation in fixed bed column and this studies were made with each pure acid individually, for the mixing of pure acid and the mixture of VFA in the effluent of an anaerobic treatment of waste water. From the results obtained, it was noted that each acid has different affinities to the resin tested, which should facilitate the separation into fractions of acids in fixed-bed column.