Abstract

Removing nutrients, e.g., ammonia, nitrate and, phosphate (NH4+, NO3-, PO43-) from wastewater, has been a great challenge. Various studies have been undertaken for metal and nutrient removal from wastewater using physical and chemical treatment techniques and synthetic surfactants. However, there have been very few studies on treatment incorporating biodegradable biosurfactants which are the candidates to enhance nutrient removal from wastewater. Either a microbial-derived biosurfactant (rhamnolipid) or a yeast-derived biosurfactant (sophorolipid) or both can be used for this removal process based on their efficiency with Micellar Enhanced Ultrafiltration (MEUF). In the MEUF process, surfactant micelles, aggregates of surfactant monomers, can bind cations and anions when oppositely charged. The MEUF system works by rejecting micelles containing cations and anions with larger diameters than the pore size of the ultrafiltration membrane. The MEUF process can be incorporated in this proposed study to increase the efficiency of metal removal and lower costs by reducing pore pressure compared to reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). The micelle-containing metal cations will be removed, and it is possible to recover the biosurfactant from the filtration system. Different parameters, e.g., surface tension, critical micelle concentration (CMC), pH, and temperature, were examined during the experimentation. The overall efficiency of the process was estimated based on the ion concentration of the final filtrate. The experimental results demonstrate that the elimination rate for NH4+, PO43-, and NO3- is around 80-90% at higher temperatures and biosurfactant concentrations. Removal rates varied from 60 to 70% at lower pH and initial ionic concentrations. However, one of the system's significant disadvantages is the reduction in membrane permeate flux produced by various experiment conditions, one being membrane fouling. The optimum conditions that deliver the most excellent nutrient removal were determined. The generated results can further be used for metal and nutrient removal from eutrophic lakes, wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), and industrial effluents in future work.