These studies show that the oil and water mixtures produced by the Lester Plant can be cleaned up using active surface membrane technology with care taken to insure the process is well characterized. The metals content of the solutions can be reduced significantly using tight ultrafiltration active surface membranes. However significant hydro-gel-like precipitates form in the permeate solutions upon standing. The gels speculatively are hydrated aluminum and iron oxy-/hydroxy-species. It has also been found that the gels are very pH sensitive, and dissolve immediately with drop wise additions of acid in one-liter samples. Due to the complex nature of the solutions that have been evaluated (i.e. high aluminum and zinc contents) the chemical analyses required greater time to accomplish than originally anticipated.

Reprinted with Permission from Spintek Filtration, Inc.