Comparison of Critical and Threshold Fluxes on Ultrafiltration and Nanofiltration by Treating 2-Phase or 3-Phase Olive Mill Wastewater

Abstract

In this work, batch membrane processes in series composed by ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are used to purify the effluents exiting both the two-phase and tree-phase extraction processes. One main problem of membrane technology is membrane fouling. In the last years, the threshold flux theory was introduced as a key tool to analyze operating conditions triggering sensible fouling. Operating below threshold flux means to limit fouling formation, and in order to increase the value of threshold flux proper pretreatment processes are required.