Comparison of commercial anion-exchange membranes for pickle waste treatment by electro-electrodialysis

This study deals with recovery conditions of acids from the pickle waste of leather industry by applying of electro-electrodialysis process. The pickle waste consists of NaCl, HCOOH, H2SO4, and organic dirt. The four commercial anion exchange membranes (Neosepta AFN, ACM, AMH, and Polysulfone SB-6407) have been used and the necessary specific energies for recovering conditions as well as the most appropriate membranes were determined. In the laboratory-scale experiments, AMH anion-exchange membrane has the best combination of electrochemical, mechanical properties and high ion permselectivity. On the contrary, AFN membrane showed good performance with respect to other membranes used and it has the lowest necessary specific energy. In this method, HCl was also produced from its salt during the recovering process.