Fractionation of polyphenols from thermomechanical pulp mill process water by flotation and membrane integrated process

ABSTRACT

Fractionation of phenolic compounds in thermomechanical pulp mills was performed with a coupling of a prior treatment realized by flotation and a ceramic membrane process. Two lines of membranes filtration were tested. After a common 150 kDa clarification, 1 kDa filtration was performed with or without previous 5 kDa filtration. Flotation was shown to be inevitable to retain lipophilic compounds which cause severe membrane fouling. 150 kDa permeate flux was 20% higher when process water was firstly floated and was around 260 L h⁻¹ m⁻². 1 kDa membrane was fouled with 31% of irreversible fouling without previous 5 kDa filtration and phenolic compounds purity reached only 26% in this 1 kDa permeate. Phenolic compounds as lignin-like substances which might be attached to hemicelluloses were recovered in 5 kDa retentate. Retentate of 1 kDa might contain a major fraction of lignin derivatives with molecular weights around 1 kDa free or linked with phenolic acids. Permeate of 1 kDa contained 14% of phenolic compounds such as lignans and free phenolic acids purified at 50%.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Phenolic compounds
• thermomechanical pulp mills
• membrane process
• flotation
• lignin derivatives and lignans

Acknowledgements

Authors thank the ‘Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie’ (a French funding agency) for funding this study within the framework of REVACOPPA project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie [grant number 1301C0074].