Valorization of Clays in the Removal of Organic Pollutants by Adsorption and Membrane Filtration: A Comparative Study

Abstract. Within the framework of the valorization of a clay from the Draa-Tafilalet region and following the study of the retention of phenol in aqueous solution which was carried out previously by adsorption on a clay, we have proceeded in this present work to the elimination of phenol by filtration on a mineral membrane already elaborated on the basis of the same clay and characterized by several tests in a previous work. A phenolic solution of known concentration was treated by tangential filtration using a laboratory-scale micro-pilot, with a filtering surface area of approximately 0.0072 m2. To make a comparative study of the retention of phenol by the two techniques mentioned above, the membrane was first characterized by the water permeation test, and then the tests of filtration which were carried out at a circulation pressure of between 0.5 and 1 bar at room temperature. Secondly, the results obtained were compared with those obtained by adsorption. The results obtained showed that the filtration process is very effective at a pressure of around 0.5bar. A comparison of the results obtained for the yield of phenol elimination by adsorption and by filtration revealed that the adsorption technique can reduce the concentration of phenol by up to 97%, while the filtration technique also recorded a very high percentage of around 90%.