| Summary: | Increasing environmental awareness over the past decade as well as stringent
environmental laws forced all factories to invest in water treatment processes for
effluent treatment before discharge or re-use. Most of these effluent treatment
processes utilize membranes as the physical. barrier for separation. The membranes
used in water applications are expensive and alternative materials and production
techniques will increase the viability of membrane separation processes.
Experiments conducted on irradiated polyethylene showed that some of its properties
were enhanced while others deteriorated. However, the enhanced properties make
the polyethylene, in particular ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, an ideal
membrane material. The manufactured membranes were tested in extraction
experiments, and satisfactory results were obtained. Permeation studies on the
membranes compared favourably with similar studies done on commercially
available membranes. An extraction rate of 1.08 g/(m2h) nickel was achieved. A
preliminary cost evaluation showed that these membranes can be manufactured at a
low cost (R13.45/m2). and can be applied as supported liquid membranes. Future
research should focus on methods to decrease the brittleness and stiffness of the
membranes. === Thesis (MIng)--PU for CHE, 1999
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