Comparative study of the removal of organic compounds using NF-99 polyamide membrane

© 2014, Asociacion de Quimicos del Instituto Quimico de Sarria. All rights reserved.Nowadays the physical processes based on membrane technology have been successfully applied for the treatment of wastewater being nanofiltration and reverse osmosis the best methods for removing organic micropollutants such as phenolic compounds. In this work a comparative study on the behaviour of the NF-99 membrane in the process of elimination of phenol, 4-chlorophenol and 4-chloro-2-methylphenol has been carried out. In addition, the NF-99 membrane has been characterized by a solution of magnesium chloride, studying the influence of the operating pressure on the characteristic parameters of the system, the permeate flux and rejection coefficient, before and after the experimental series. From the membrane characterization, nearly constant values of the permeate flux and rejection coefficients were obtained for both the initial and the final conditions. The compound 4-chloro-2-methylphenol obtained higher rejection coefficients in all conditions of pressure, feed concentration and pH tested.