Evaluation of ultrafiltration process performance for treatment of petroleum contaminated waters

A series of 2(4) factorial design experiments were performed to study the effects of source water type, contaminant concentration, prefiltration and use of a coagulant on the performance of ultrafiltration process (UF) for treatment of waters contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs). The process performance was evaluated in terms of initial flux through the membrane, fouling time and PHC removal efficiency. The higher levels of PHC contamination significantly decreased the initial flux, membrane life and PHC removal efficiency. Coagulation pretreatment significantly improved the membrane life and PHC removal efficiency with no significant effect on the initial flux. Prefiltration to remove the flocs from the coagulated water samples did not improve the fouling time but improved the PHC removal efficiency.