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# Prospects of industrial membrane concentrates: zero waste hybrid process combining membrane filtration and wet air oxidation

Emilie Gout, S. Loisir, Mathias Monnot, Pierre Vanloot, Philippe Moulin, Olivier Boutin

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Emilie Gout, S. Loisir, Mathias Monnot, Pierre Vanloot, Philippe Moulin, et al.. Prospects of industrial membrane concentrates: zero waste hybrid process combining membrane filtration and wet air oxidation. Euromembrane 2021, Nov 2021, Cophenhague, Denmark. **hal-03598777**

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Submitted on 6 Feb 2025

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# Prospects of industrial membrane concentrates: zero waste hybrid process combining membrane filtration and wet air oxidation

E. Gout¹*, S. Loisir¹, M. Monnot¹, P. Vanloot², O. Boutin¹, P. Moulin¹

Industrial development has led to the generation of higher volumes of wastewater. Depending on the industry, wastewater volume and quality can considerably vary. Recalcitrant organic pollution is found in these effluents. Proper treatment to comply with stringent regulation for environmental discharge remains a challenge. The hybrid process study was set to treat ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis (RO) concentrates with wet air oxidation (WAO) to generate a global outlet, including permeate, safe for environmental discharge. Membrane separation is a process of choice for wastewater remediation as it permits the production of a significant volume of good quality permeate. However, the main drawback of membranes is the concentration of a highly polluted stream that cannot be discharged. WAO is suited for small volumes of concentrated effluents with a chemical oxygen demand (COD) typically between 10 – 100 g.L⁻¹ for autothermicity. This treatment path combines pros and cons of both processes by lowering the volume of concentrates while obtaining the right COD with filtration for further low energy WAO treatment. High intensification potential has been shown in previous works on both synthetic and real industrial effluents. High concentration factors were obtained (between 17 and 40) without affecting a good regeneration of the membrane. Moreover, for total organic carbon (TOC), removals by WAO were above 80% and filtration retention reached at least 75% [1]. Performance of the global process depends on efficiency of filtration (concentration factor and permeate quality) and of WAO (pressure, temperature, concentration criterion (mainly COD) and residence time). Experimental design methodology was used to determine best operating conditions for pollution removal. Characterizations were performed to highlight process performances such as pH, conductivity, turbidity, COD, TOC and humic acid-like reduction by emission-excitation fluorescence spectroscopy. The first test campaign was on real RO landfill leachates concentrates (1.5 concentration factor and 99% TOC retention) ; a TOC removal of 88% was achieved after lab-scale WAO at 300°C – 21 MPa. The goal is to work on all operating parameters to enable sufficient pollution reductions to meet with discharge regulation. To validate industrial-scale process intensification, experiments in a bubble column reactor working in continuous are foreseen.

## Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the project TEMPO (reference number ANR-19-CE04-0002-01).

## References

[1] C. Pinchai, M. Monnot, S. Lefèvre, O. Boutin, et P. Moulin, « Coupling membrane filtration and wet air oxidation for advanced wastewater treatment: Performance at the pilot scale and process intensification potential », Can. J. Chem. Eng., déc. 2019, doi: 10.1002/cjce.23688.

<footnote>(1) Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, M2P2, 13545 Aix en Provence, France</footnote>

<footnote>(2) Aix Marseille Univ, Avignon Univ, CNRS, IRD, IMBE, Marseille, France</footnote>