Understanding the effects of operational conditions on the membrane distillation process applied to the recovery of water from textile effluents

Abstract This study analyzed the influence of operational conditions on the Direct Contact Membrane Distillation for synthetic effluents containing reactive and disperse dyes. Results of the permeate flux demonstrated different behavior of the process according to the class of dye. It was found a higher dependence of feed temperature to reactive dye and the analysis of temperature gradient between feed and permeate demonstrated the possibility of operation with higher temperatures in both streams to increase the permeate flux for both dyes. Feed flow rate influenced more the process with reactive dye, while the permeate flow rate determined this behavior for disperse dye. Energy factors showed that the gain output rate and energy efficiency enhanced with the increase of feed temperature, and the energy efficiency increased only with the permeate flow rate (and not with feed flow rate). The water distillation recovery rate was 97.3 % for reactive and 98.7 % for disperse dye; the color rejection of the dyes was over 98 %. These results indicated the adequate functionality of the process for water recovery of textile wastewater, providing an adequate permeate for possible reuse.