Farahnaz Haghighat

PhD Candidate
Contact Details
T: +61-2-9385-4339
E: f.haghighat@student.unsw.edu.au
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Room 208, Chemical Sciences Bldg
The University of New South Wales
Sydney, 2052, Australia

Profile

Education

  • Master of Chemical Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran

Research Project

Treatment of Distillery Waste using Membrane Technology

Distillery effluent from ethanol production is highly polluted, requiring costly treatment before being discharged. This waste is rich in potassium that could be recovered for use as fertilizer, to offset negative environmental impacts and contribute to overall process sustainability. Different pressurized membrane technologies, as well as electrodialysis, were applied for treatment of distillery spent wash. High energy consumption and pre-treatment requirement are disadvantages common to membrane processes. Therefore, it was necessary to develop an innovative solution for treatment of distillery wastes that balanced, maximum recovery of valuable nutrients, and production of high quality water and minimized energy consumption. To this end the technical feasibility of using non-pressurized membrane processes such as forward osmosis and dialysis as cost effective methods for recovery of potassium from distillery spent wash will be investigated.

Supervisors