Waste oil/water emulsion treatment by membrane processes

The present work investigated the treatment of waste drawing oil which is a high-strength waste oil/water emulsion commonly used in the cable and wire industries. Semi-batch ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) processes along with prefiltration by a microfilter were employed to treat the waste oil/water emulsion. Experiments were conducted to examine the performances of each of the UF and RO treatment steps. The observed results have clearly shown the excellent performances of the combined UF and RO treatment processes. The water quality of permeate from the combined treatment processes has been consistently excellent which permits direct discharge or can be considered for reuse. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.