EU project Oelex: Oil removal through ceramic filtration
As an expert in the field of ceramic membrane filtration, our team at Rauschert Kloster Veilsdorf is participating as a partner in the EU-funded Oelex project.
The overall aim of the project is to treat oil-contaminated, surfactant-containing washing solutions that are produced during the cleaning of components in metalworking processes using a new type of membrane separation process.
This involves removing the oil from the solutions while retaining the remaining composition. This enables the washing solutions to be reused and reduces the amount of waste declared as hazardous waste.
The separation process is based on ceramic filtration membranes, which are permeable to water due to their surface chemistry, but retain non-polar compounds such as oil. By using modified membranes, which are being developed and tested as part of the project, a 95% reduction in the volume of wastewater (based on an initial concentration of 2% oil) can be achieved. The pilot plant designed and developed in Oelex is intended to demonstrate the practical application of this technology in a company in the metalworking industry.