Increasing the Efficiency of the Ultrafiltration Process in the Treatment of Pharmaceutical Industry Wastewater by Using Mixed Anionic-Nonionic Micelles

Document Type : Research paper

Authors

Department of Chemical Engineering, Qu. C., Islamic Azad University, Quchan, Iran

Abstract

Objective: Pharmaceutical industries are a source of environmental pollution by producing large volumes of diverse wastewater. This wastewater contains drugs, water-soluble active compounds, pollutants such as pathogenic bacteria, unbalanced ions, and suspended particles that can negatively affect human health and the environment, making its treatment inevitable. Micelle-enhanced ultrafiltration process uses surfactants to create micelles that entrap contaminants and enable their separation through ultrafiltration membranes. The aim of this paper is to investigate the efficiency of this method in the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater using the anionic surfactant sodium dodecylbenzene and the nonionic surfactant IGEPAL.
Materials and methods: Experiments were conducted at three transmembrane pressure levels and varying concentrations of anionic and nonionic surfactants. The effects of these parameters on permeate flux and the removal efficiency of key wastewater contaminants, including turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and electrical conductivity (EC), were systematically investigated. Also, the effect of the presence of nonionic surfactant IGE on membrane performance and fouling indices was studied.
Results: The results demonstrated that increasing pressure enhanced permeate flux, whereas higher surfactant concentrations reduced it. Under optimal conditions, the process achieved approximately 95% turbidity removal, 25% TDS removal, and 68% EC reduction. Furthermore, the combined IGE–SDS system outperformed SDS alone, indicating a synergistic effect between the two surfactants. The results showed that increasing pressure and appropriate combination of IGE with SDS enhanced the membrane performance in improving water quality.
Conclusions: Micelle-enhanced ultrafiltration process can be used as an effective process in the treatment of wastewater from pharmaceutical factories and can be considered a potential alternative to conventional treatment methods.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Separation Science and Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 2
December 2025
Pages 74-89

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