Abstract Large quantities of salty whey are produced during cheese manufacturing, posing an environmental problem. Here the feasibility of electrodialysis with bipolar membranes (EDBM) is evaluated for the first time as a mechanism to transform this saline effluent into sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid for reuse within the factory. This work also seeks to find the maximum acid and base concentration that can be achieved. For a pure sodium chloride solution, maximum acid/base concentrations of 3.6 ± 0.2 mol/L and 3.0 ± 0.3 mol/L are achieved using a stack of ten membranes including four bipolar membranes. The effects of proton leakage and water migration limit the generation of higher concentrations. The presence of calcium phosphate also has a negative effect on the EDBM performance, suggesting that pretreatment to remove this impurity is needed. In industrial practice, this pretreatment could be achieved by recycling around 9% of the base produced to precipitate these salts. The use of a partially cyclic operation allows 99% demineralization of pretreated salty whey, with high purity acid/base solutions of concentration near 3.5 mol/L. This work demonstrates EDBM as an effective process for transforming salty whey into chemicals for clean in place and ion exchange resin regeneration.

中文翻译：

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使用双极膜电渗析将咸乳清转化为清洁化学品

摘要 奶酪生产过程中会产生大量咸乳清，造成环境问题。在这里，首次评估了使用双极膜 (EDBM) 进行电渗析的可行性，作为将这种盐水流出物转化为氢氧化钠和盐酸以在工厂内重复使用的机制。这项工作还试图找到可以达到的最大酸碱浓度。对于纯氯化钠溶液，使用十个膜（包括四个双极膜）的堆叠可实现 3.6 ± 0.2 mol/L 和 3.0 ± 0.3 mol/L 的最大酸/碱浓度。质子泄漏和水迁移的影响限制了更高浓度的产生。磷酸钙的存在也会对 EDBM 性能产生负面影响，表明需要进行预处理以去除这种杂质。在工业实践中，这种预处理可以通过回收约 9% 的碱来沉淀这些盐来实现。使用部分循环操作可以使预处理的咸乳清脱盐 99%，高纯度酸/碱溶液的浓度接近 3.5 mol/L。这项工作证明了 EDBM 是一种将咸乳清转化为用于原位清洁和离子交换树脂再生的化学品的有效工艺。