ABSTRACT
Recovery of wool wax from an industrial effluent by air flotation was experimentally
investigated. Batch flotation process was carried out at different experimental
conditions and different airflow rates were also tested. From the results obtained it
was concluded that wool wax can be successfully recovered from the tested
industrial effluent by using batch air flotation process. The percentage of wax
recovery increased with increasing the flotation time, so that 90 % wax recovery was
obtained within 10 minutes. Wax recovery was found to decrease with increasing the
initial concentration of wax/water emulsion. The highest percentage recovery of wax
was obtained at a working column height eight times the diameter of the flotation
column at a 9.0 pH value of the emulsion, inlet flow rate 1500 ml/min, at a soap
concentration 0.5g/l.