Contents Notes |
"Hyperfiltration (HF) is a membrane separation technique that has been used successfully to desalinate natural water. Because energy, process chemicals, and water are discharged from industrial processes in large quantities, recycle has been studied in a series of government sponsored research projects. Research results led to the current project of joining a full-scale HF system (with operating dye range) to an integrated production unit. The dye range is a multipurpose unit with a variety of effluents from the preparation and dyeing of a variety of textile fabrics. High temperature membranes of hydrous zirconium oxide and polyacrylic acid, dynamically formed on porous sintered stainless-steel tubular supports, were installed as a demonstration unit. Over 2 million m of fabric was produced with recycled water. Two 4000-m lots of fabric were produced with the recycled chemical concentrate. The demonstration project was extended to further study and develop the recycle of the chemical concentrate. Demonstration results indicated a positive rate of return, with savings from recycle more than offsetting capital and operating costs. The actual payout time depends primarily on the value of the chemicals and the practicality of their recycle. This report describes the HF system, gives data from several chemical recycle tests, and discusses HF as a dye recovery technique. The HF system is set aside for possible future use when economic and regulatory requirements change. In this off-line configuration, privately funded studies of reuse and membrane performance are continuing." |