Simultaneous treatment of dye wastewater and surfactant wastewater by foam separation: Experimental and mesoscopic simulation study

Foam separation for simultaneous removal of rhodamine B (RhB) and cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)/sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) from model wastewater was studied. The effect of the surfactant type, aeration rate, temperature, and initial pH on the removal efficiency and enrichment ratio of dye/surfactant were investigated. The results indicated that electrostatic attraction between the dye and surfactant have a great effect on the recovery of the dye and surfactant. The aeration rate has significant influence on the CTAB and RhB removal and enrichment, while the initial pH has a great effect on the RhB removal, but little effect on CTAB removal. Moreover, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) was employed to simulate the interaction between the surfactant and the dye.