Competitive Binding Interaction between Anionic Reactive Dyes and Cleavable Surfactant Micelles in Micellar-enhanced Microfiltration

Micellar-enhanced microfiltration (MEMF) was studied to remove reactive dyes from aqueous solution. In this study, simultaneous removal of Reactive Black 5 (RB5) and Reactive Orange 16 (RO16) via MEMF using palm based esterquat (PBE) as cleavable surfactant was investigated. The effect of surfactant concentration, operating pressure, and initial pH on the permeate flux, dyes and surfactant removal were discussed to assess the efficiency of MEMF process. Results obtained in this study shows that the MEMF process achieved almost complete decolourization of both RB5 and RO16 from aqueous solution.