Study on the removal of MIBK from aqueous solution by vacuum membrane distillation

Methyl isobutyl ketone(MIBK) is widely used as extraction agent in hydrometallurgy. As it has a definite solubility in water, so when using MIBK as extraction agent, there will be MIBK in stripping solutions inevitably, which not only pollutes working conditions, but also affects the quality of ultimate product. In order to remove MIBK from aqueous solutions, the means of flat vacuum membrane distillation(VMD) is studied in the paper. The area of the membrane used in the study is 0.02 m2, the initial volume of feed is 2 L, each experiment was conducted over a time period of 60–120 min. The influences of the factors such as temperature(34.8–55.0 °C); pressure in the permeate side(10.67–14.67 kPa) and feed flow rate(27.8–69.4 mL/s) were experimentally studied. Increasing the temperature or reducing the pressure in the permeate side results in a faster removal of MIBK; however there is a decrease in removal factor β, increasing the feed flow rate results in a faster removal of MIBK and an increase of removal factor β, especially in the range of lower flow rate. The study indicates that the aim of MIBK removal and recycle from dilute aqueous solutions can be achieved by VMD.