Development and validation of a dynamic model for regeneration of passivating baths using membrane contactors

This work aims at the development of a dynamic model for the mathematical description of facilitated transport separation processes carried out in membrane contactors where mass transport phenomena are coupled with chemical reactions. A general model that takes into account the description of all possible mass transport steps and interfacial chemical reactions is initially presented, allowing its application to a wide range of separation processes and operation conditions. The analysis of the specific system under study, regeneration of trivalent chromium spent passivating baths by removal of zinc using the emulsion pertraction technology, allowed to define several assumptions obtaining simplified models with minimum number of uncertain parameters and mathematical complexity. The final equations and parameters were validated with experimental data reported in a previous work (Urtiaga, Bringas, Mediavilla, & Ortiz, 2010).