Desalination, Vol.357, 215-224, 2015
Pilot-scale integrated membrane system for the treatment of acrylonitrile wastewater
The production of acrylonitrile exceeds 5 million tons every year throughout the world, which leads to the huge emission of acrylonitrile wastewater. Hence, treating the acrylonitrile wastewater remains challenging. In this study, a pilot scale integrated membrane system (IMS) consisting of ultrafiltration (UP), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) was proposed to treat the highly concentrated acrylonitrile wastewater from petrochemical plants. A preliminary techno-economic study for a 24 m(3)/day wastewater treatment pilot plant was conducted. The system runs smoothly in 1600 h operation. In treating acrylonitrile wastewater with COD 22,000-30,000 mg/L, NH3-N 14-40 mg/L, CN- 20-55 mg/L, the effluent water quality of IMS was COD < 3000 mg/L, NH3-N < 10 mg/L, CN- <5 mg/L. The results show that the developed IMS is effective for the treatment of acrylonitrile wastewater and industrialization of IMS is prospective. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.