Application of pervaporation and adsorption to the phenol removal from wastewater

Application of pervaporation and adsorption to the removal of phenol from solutions modeling wastewater from phenol production with cumene oxidation process was investigated. The transport and separation properties of composite membranes PEBA, PERVAP 1060 and PERVAP 1070 in pervaporation of water-acetone, water-phenol and water-phenol-acetone mixtures were determined. It was found that all membranes were selective toward phenol. The PEBA membrane showed the best selectivity. However, this membrane is not actually available on the commercial scale. Thus, in the practical applications PERVAP-1060 and PERVAP-1070 could be used. Adsorption of phenol on the different Amberlite resins was also investigated. Among the Amberlite resins of various grades used, the Amberlite XAD-4 had the best properties in decontamination of aqueous phenol solutions. It was shown that regeneration of the adsorbent bed could be effectively performed with sodium hydroxide solution. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.