REMOVAL OF ORGANIC SOLVENT CONTAMINANTS FROM INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENT STREAMS BY PERVAPORATION

ORGANIC SOLVENT-CONTAINING EFFLUENT STREAMS STREAMS REPRE- SENT A SERIOUS WATER POLLUTION PROBLEM. THE INVESTIGATORS WILL APPLY A NEW MEMBRANE PROCESS CALLED PERVAPORATION TO TREAT THESE STREAMS. PERVAPORATION IS CAPABLE OF SELECTIVE-LY REMOVING ORGANIC SOLVENTS, EVEN IN LOW CONCENTRATIONS, FROM WATER. THEY HAVE BEEN DEVLOPING THIS PROCESS FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS, FIRST IN LABORATORY-SCALE SPIRAL-WOUND MODULES AND MORE RECENTLY IN SMALL PILOT UNITS. THE INVES- TIGATORS HAVE PRODUCED STREAMS IN WHICH THE ORGANIC SOLVENTSARE CONCENTRATED MORE THAN 300-FOLD ABOVE THEIR FEED STREAM FOR EXAMPLE, MORE THE 99% OF THE 1,1,2- TRICHLOROETHANE. INTHIS PHASE I PROGRAM, THEY WILL EXTEND THEIR WORK TO POLLUTEEFFLUENT STREAMS OBTAINED FROM A NUMBER OF INDUSTRIES, AND WILL EVALUATE PERVAPORATION AS A TREATMENT METHOD AND ASSESSTHE ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF THE PROCESS. THE INVESTIGATORS WILL ALSO EXAMINE A NUMBER OF PRACTICAL ISSUES, SUCH AS MEM-BRANE FOULING AND MEMBRANE AND MODULE STABILITY. THESE ISSUES WILL BE ADDRESSED USINHG MODEL AND REAL INDUS-TRIAL SOLUTIONS. BASED ON THESE RESULTS, ONE OR TWO OF THE PROMISING PERVAPORATION APPLICATIONS WILL BE SELECTED FOR FURTHER STUDIES IN PHASEII PROGRAM. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE II PROGRAM WOULD BE TO FIELD TEST A SMALL PRO- TOTYPE PERVAPORATION UNIT WITH THE CAPABILITY OF TREAT 100 TO 1,00 GAL/DAY OF FEED WATER. THIS PROCESS COULD FIND A WIDE APPLICATION AS AN ECONOMICAL METHOD OF REMOVING LOW CONCENTRATIONS OF ORGANIC SOLVENTS.