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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received June 3, 2022
Revised August 24, 2022
Accepted August 28, 2022

Acknowledgements: This work was financially supported by Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation (Thailand) through grant RGNS 63-214 and the new strategic research project (P2P) fiscal year 2022, Walailak University, Thailand.

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Ammonia recovery from natural rubber processing wastewater by hollow fiber membrane contactors: Mass transfer in short- and long-term operations and fouling characteristics

Nattakan Janchuaina^{1 2} Nititorn Chusri³ Ratana Jiraratananon⁴ Tae-Hyun Bae⁵ Wichitpan Rongwong^{1 2†}

¹Department of Chemical Engineering and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Engineering and Technology, Walailak University, Tasala, Nakhon Si Thammarat 80161, Thailand ²Biomass and Oil Palm Center of Excellence, Walailak University, Tasala, Nakhon Si Thammarat 80161, Thailand ³The Center for Scientific and Technological Equipment, Walailak University 222 Thai Buri, Tha Sala District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province 80160 Thailand.0161, Thailand ⁴Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Toongkru, Bangkok 10140, Thailan ⁵Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Kore

wichitpan.ro@wu.ac.th

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, May 2023, 40(5), 1103-1115(13), 10.1007/s11814-022-1277-y

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Abstract

This study investigates the performance of hydrophobic membrane contactors (HMC) for the recovery of dissolved ammonia (NH3) from natural rubber processing (NRP) wastewater during short- and long-term operation. The results show that 90% recovery of total NH3 nitrogen can be achieved. In the short-term operations, the increases in the wastewater velocity and pH enhanced the NH3 desorption overall mass transfer coefficient (KOV), but the increase in the number of total solids in the wastewater reduced the KOV. The Wilson plot method confirmed the significance of the mass transfer resistance of the wastewater phase for NH3 desorption. The long-term operation revealed that the KOV was kept constant for 15 days and then declined owing to membrane fouling. Flushing using water (physical cleaning) could not restore the KOV to its initial value, but a series of chemical cleanings with 0.1 M NaOH and 0.1 M HCl solution successfully recovered the KOV. The comparison of cleaning solutions in the foulant extraction’s ability showed that 0.1 M NaOH was the most potent, followed by 0.1 M HCl and water. Fouling characterization using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM/EDS) and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed a cake layer covering the membrane surface, and the foulants consisted of organic compounds composed of proteins from natural rubber (NR) particles and inorganic salts. The hydrophobic interaction of the proteins covering the NR particles allowed the natural rubber particles to be deposited on the membrane surface, even without hydraulic pressure in HMC. The negative charge of the NR particles could also interact with ions, leading to the formation of inorganic components in the fouling cake layers. Two types of fouled membrane surfaces were identified via SEM/EDS: a smooth area, which consisted of N-atom from proteins, and a rugged area with small conglomerate particles in which no N-atoms were observed.

Keywords

Ammonia Recovery Fouling Characteristics Membrane Contactors Natural Rubber Wastewater

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