Wu Ta Yeong, Abdul Wahab Mohammad, Nurina Anuar and Rakmi Abdul Rahman

pp. 977 - 987

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the potential use of nanofiltration (NF) membranes in
treating the wastewater, generated from the fish and surimi industries. The possibility of recovering the
protein from the wastewater was also investigated, since these effluents contain a large amount of protein,
which could be concentrated by means of NF and recycled into the fishmeal process. The protein could also
be traded as fertilizer or animal feed by-products. In this study, fish and surimi washing wastewater was
generated in the laboratory. Then, the wastewater was subjected to pre-treatment by using a filter paper
(due to the high concentration of suspended matter in these effluents) before it was treated/separated by
using a polyamide NF membrane of 500 Da. Permeation experiments showed that NF was capable of reducing COD and TSS up to 93 % and 87 %, respectively. Study on long-term flux decline indicated that
polyamide NF membrane fouled much more slowly.

Keywords

• nanofiltration
• wastewater
• recovery
• protein