RESEARCH NOTE: CONTINUOUS METAL RECOVERY PROCESS USING POLYMER ENHANCED ULTRAFILTRATION

摘要

The separation of metals from aqueous streams by continuous polymer enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) was modelled in order to understand, evaluate and optimise the feasibility of the process. The mathematical model developed has three sections: mass balances, equilibrium of metal-polymer complexation and rules for UF membrane separation. On the one hand, the model allows an examination of the influence of physico-chemical variables (affinity between the metal ion and the complexing polymer groups) and engineering parameters (mainly expended acid and base reagents, amount of polymer used and recycling stream flow) on the quality and productivity of the treated water stream. On the other hand, a suitable representation of the simulation results has been shown to be helpful in choosing operation parameter values that lead to the stable output of treated water with the desired quality and productivity.