The Elimination of Toluenediamine from Aqueous Solution by Reverse Osmosis

Abstract

<em>Toluene diamine (TDA) is a main carcinogenic aromatic pollutant in some industrial wastewater. In this study, the reverse osmosis with DSS-HR98PP as the membrane was employed </em><em>for the removal of TDA in an aqueous environment. The </em><em>Box–Behnken Design (BBD) of the experiment</em><em>was used to consider the effect of operational variables such as pressure, pH and the feed volumetric</em><em> flow rate on the rejection efficiency of TDA.</em><em> The </em><em>ANOVA (Analysis of variance) </em><em>exhibited a reasonable prediction second-order regression model and a high determination coefficient values (R² = 99.57, R²_adj = 98.81 and R²_pred = 93.20). </em><em>The optimum conditions predicted by the model were as follows: the volumetric flow rate of feed at 6 </em><em>´</em><em> 10^-5 m³/m²s, pH at 6.8, and pressure at 45 </em><em>´</em><em> 10^-5 N/m². The predicted optimum response was 98.2%. </em><em>The results showed that at the optimum conditions obtained for rejection, the permeate flux and actual rejection efficiency were </em><em>44.3 </em><em>´</em><em> 10⁴ m³/m²s</em><em>, and</em><em> 96.9%, </em><em>respectively</em><em>.</em>