Investigation Into the Potential of Membrane Water Treatment Processes for Effluent Treatment and Reuse Within an Integrated Steel Works
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_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Investigation into the potential of membrane water treatment processes for effluent treatment and reuse within an integrated steel works. Evans, James How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Evans, James (2006) Investigation into the potential of membrane water treatment processes for effluent treatment and reuse within an integrated steel works.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42615 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. 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Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Investigation into the potential of membrane water treatment processes for effluent treatment and reuse within an integrated steel works By James Evans, M.Eng Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy At University of Wales, Swansea June 2006 Department of Chemical Engineering ProQuest Number: 10805373 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10805373 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 LIBRARY Abstract Investigation into the potential of membrane water treatment processes for effluent treatment and reuse within an integrated steel works. This project concerns the investigation of the viability of membrane processes applied to water processing for potential recycling and reuse within an integrated steel works. Two waste streams were identified for further investigation, namely cold mill rolling emulsion and steel plant gas scrubber effluent (particulate rich), both containing variable concentrations of pollutants. To study these processes, a versatile membrane pilot plant was designed, constructed and commissioned. This consisted of a 150 L feed tank, variable speed pump, pipe work and instrumentation with a process datalogger recording process information. Two different full size commercially available membrane modules could be accommodated, i.e. of tubular and hollow fibre formats. Three membranes were used to investigate the filtration of waste emulsion, two tubular PVDF membranes, neutral and anionic surfaces and a PAN hollow fibre. To treat the scrubber effluent, a PS hollow fibre module was used. Experiments were conducted on two real waste streams from the works. The two real waste streams were found to have a variable composition but the membranes were able to consistently produce a high quality product stream that could have many further uses within a steel works. Water could be separated from the oil-in-water emulsion, containing several hundred PPM of oil, to produce an almost particulate free permeate containing consistently less than 10 PPM of oil, at flux rates similar to those reported in literature of 50 L m2h ' . Similarly, the filtration of the particulate bearing effluent, 7-122 mg / L of solids, produced water that contained less than 4 PPM of solids in the permeate at a flux rate of up to 160 L m V . Due to the variability in concentration of the oil-in-water emulsion, a defined emulsion was prepared, 1.5 g / L and investigated. This gave consistently better fluxes and the key parameters investigated were variable concentration and conductivity of the solution, flow rate and transmembrane pressure. The use of 0.01 and 0.001 M K Cl having a negative effect on the permeate quality for both anionic and neutral membranes. A cost benefit analysis has shown that a cubic meter of treated oil-in-water emulsion based effluent using PVDF tubular membranes has an operating cost of £1.17 / m3. A cost benefit analysis has shown that a cubic meter of treated steel plant effluent using polysulphone hollow fibre membranes has an operating cost of £0.13 / m3. In the case of both tubular membranes, a decline in pure water flux (PWF) was seen over time, with the PAN experiencing significant permanent fouling and the PS was able to be consistently cleaned to recover PWF. This work has shown that the use of membranes for treating waste streams of variable composition produced consistently high quality permeate and that they could be applied to treating these streams. However, further work is required to prove the full commercial viability and to assess the impact on the water system within a steel works of applying membrane water treatment processes on a large scale. Declaration This Work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed (candidate) Date 30 / /o 6 This thesis is the result of my own investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed Date I Hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organizations. Signed I I acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences research Council and | corns strip products in funding this research project. \ My gratitude goes to the Chemical Engineering Department at U W Swansea for providing assistance, facilities and advice during my time in the department - thanks to Dr Lovitt for his supervision. The Energy department at corns strip products, Port Talbot, for funding and providing experimental apparatus, office facilities, training and experience. Thanks are also due to the RD&T department of corns strip products, Engineering Doctorate Centre at UW Swansea - Prof Wiltshire, Prof Parker and all the other staff involved with the Scheme. My colleagues - now friends - 1 worked with during my time on the scheme. Finally, thanks to my family and friends for their patience and support. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................3 1.1 W o rk A im s ..................................................................................................................................................................................3 1.2 C o ru s Po rt T a l b o t ...............................................................................................................................................................3 1.3 En e r g y C onsiderations .....................................................................................................................................................4 1.4 P roject D r iv er s ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 S u m m a r y : ................................................................................................................................................................................. 11 2 BACKGROUND TO WATER USAGE IN PORT TALBOT WORKS....................................................12 2.1 R a w W a t e r Su p p l y ..............................................................................................................................................................12 2.2 W a t e r T r e a t m e n t ............................................................................................................................................................... 16 2.3 W a ter Us e r s ...........................................................................................................................................................................19 2.4 E ffluent Sy s t e m s ................................................................................................................................................................ 22 2.5 Stream Selec tio n ................................................................................................................................................................ 25 3 LITERATURE AND TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW..................................................................................26 3. l A ppr o a ch es to W ater