scholarly journals Development of Polysulfone Membrane via Vapor-Induced Phase Separation for Oil/Water Emulsion Filtration

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2519
Author(s):  
Nafiu Umar Barambu ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Mohamad Azmi Bustam ◽  
Nurul Huda ◽  
Juhana Jaafar ◽  
...  

The discharge of improperly treated oil/water emulsion by industries imposes detrimental effects on human health and the environment. The membrane process is a promising technology for oil/water emulsion treatment. However, it faces the challenge of being maintaining due to membrane fouling. It occurs as a result of the strong interaction between the hydrophobic oil droplets and the hydrophobic membrane surface. This issue has attracted research interest in developing the membrane material that possesses high hydraulic and fouling resistance performances. This research explores the vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS) method for the fabrication of a hydrophilic polysulfone (PSF) membrane with the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the additive for the treatment of oil/water emulsion. Results show that the slow nonsolvent intake in VIPS greatly influences the resulting membrane structure that allows the higher retention of the additive within the membrane matrix. By extending the exposure time of the cast film under humid air, both surface chemistry and morphology of the resulting membrane can be enhanced. By extending the exposure time from 0 to 60 s, the water contact angle decreases from 70.28 ± 0.61° to 57.72 ± 0.61°, and the clean water permeability increases from 328.70 ± 8.27 to 501.89 ± 8.92 (L·m−2·h−1·bar−1). Moreover, the oil rejection also improves from 85.06 ± 1.6 to 98.48 ± 1.2%. The membrane structure was transformed from a porous top layer with a finger-like macrovoid sub-structure to a relatively thick top layer with a sponge-like macrovoid-free sub-structure. Overall results demonstrate the potential of the VIPS process to enhance both surface chemistry and morphology of the PSF membrane.

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Normi Izati Mat Nawi ◽  
Nur Rifqah Sait ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Norazanita Shamsuddin ◽  
Juhana Jaafar ◽  
...  

Membrane-based technology is an attractive option for the treatment of oily wastewater because of its high oil removal efficiency, small footprint and operational simplicity. However, filtration performance is highly restricted by membrane fouling, especially when treating oil/water emulsion as a result of strong interaction between oil droplets and the hydrophobic property of the membrane. This study explores the fabrication of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based membrane via the vapour induced phase separation (VIPS) method while incorporating polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a hydrophilic additive to encounter membrane fouling issues and improve membrane filterability. The resulting membranes were characterized and tested for oil/water emulsion filtration to evaluate their hydraulic, rejection and anti-fouling properties. Results show that the changes in membrane morphology and structure from typical macrovoids with finger-like substructure to cellular structure and larger membrane pore size were observed by the prolonged exposure time from 0 to 30 min through the VIPS method. The enhanced clean water permeability is attributed to the addition of PVP–LiCl in the dope solution that enlarges the mean flow pore size from 0.210 ± 0.1 to 7.709 ± 3.5 µm. The best performing membrane was the VIPS membrane with an exposure time of 5 min (M-5), showing oil/water emulsion permeability of 187 Lm−2 h−1 bar−1 and oil rejection of 91.3% as well as an elevation of 84% of clean water permeability compared to pristine PVDF developed using a typical non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method. Despite the relatively high total fouling, M-5 was able to maintain its high permeability by water flushing as a simple operation for membrane fouling control. The performance was achieved thanks to combination of the large mean flow pore size and hydrophilic property from residual PVP in the membarne matrix. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential of the optimum VIPS method in the presence of PVP and LiCl additives for oil/water emulsion treatment.


2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Zhang ◽  
Qingchen Lu ◽  
Nana Li

Abstract Membrane separation technology is widely used in wastewater purification, but the issue of membrane fouling could not be ignored. Hydrophilic modification is an effective method to reduce membrane fouling. Therefore, in this work, a hydrophilic modified polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration membrane was prepared by polymer/non-solvent co-induced phase separation, and the effect of coagulation bath temperature on the membrane structure and performance was systematically investigated based on the previous study. With the increased of the coagulation bath temperature, the phase separation process changed from delayed to instantaneous, and the membrane surface changed from porous to dense, while the macropore structures and sponge-like pores appeared on the cross-section. Meanwhile, the pure water flux decreased from 229.3 L/(m2·h) to 2.08 L/(m2·h), the protein rejection rate increased from 83.87% to 100%, and the surface water contact angle increased from 63° to 90°. Thus, excessively high coagulation bath temperature adversely affected the permeate and separation performance, as well as antifouling performance of the membrane. This study enriched the research for preparing separation membranes by polymer/non-solvent co-induced phase separation and provided a practical and theoretical reference for controlling the membrane structure and properties by changing the coagulation bath temperature.


Author(s):  
Sina Jahangiri Mamouri ◽  
Volodymyr V. Tarabara ◽  
André Bénard

Deoiling of produced or impaired waters associated with oil and gas production represents a significant challenge for many companies. Centrifugation, air flotation, and hydrocyclone separation are the current methods of oil removal from produced water [1], however the efficiency of these methods decreases dramatically for droplets smaller than approximately 15–20 μm. More effective separation of oil-water mixtures into water and oil phases has the potential to both decrease the environmental footprint of the oil and gas industry and improve human well-being in regions such as the Gulf of Mexico. New membrane separation processes and design of systems with advanced flow management offer tremendous potential for improving oil-water separation efficacy. However, fouling is a major challenge in membrane separation [2]. In this study, the behavior of oil droplets and their interaction with crossflow filtration (CFF) membranes (including membrane fouling) is studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A model for film formation on a membrane surface is proposed for the first time to simulate film formation on membrane surfaces. The bulk multiphase flow is modeled using an Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase flow model. A wall film is developed from mass and momentum balances [3] and implemented to model droplet deposition and membrane surface blockage. The model is used to predict film formation and subsequent membrane fouling, and allow to estimate the actual permeate flux. The results are validated using available experimental data.


Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1379
Author(s):  
Daniel Breite ◽  
Marco Went ◽  
Andrea Prager ◽  
Mathias Kühnert ◽  
Agnes Schulze

A major goal of membrane science is the improvement of the membrane performance and the reduction of fouling effects, which occur during most aqueous filtration applications. Increasing the surface hydrophilicity can improve the membrane performance (in case of aqueous media) and decelerates membrane fouling. In this study, a PES microfiltration membrane (14,600 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) was hydrophilized using a hydrophilic surface coating based on amide functionalities, converting the hydrophobic membrane surface (water contact angle, WCA: ~90°) into an extremely hydrophilic one (WCA: ~30°). The amide layer was created by first immobilizing piperazine to the membrane surface via electron beam irradiation. Subsequently, a reaction with 1,3,5-benzenetricarbonyl trichloride (TMC) was applied to generate an amide structure. The presented approach resulted in a hydrophilic membrane surface, while maintaining permeance of the membrane without pore blocking. All membranes were investigated regarding their permeance, porosity, average pore size, morphology (SEM), chemical composition (XPS), and wettability. Soxhlet extraction was carried out to demonstrate the stability of the applied coating. The improvement of the modified membranes was demonstrated using dead-end filtration of algae solutions. After three fouling cycles, about 60% of the initial permeance remain for the modified membranes, while only ~25% remain for the reference.


Membranes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basel Al-Rudainy ◽  
Mats Galbe ◽  
Frank Lipnizki ◽  
Ola Wallberg

In this study, we compared the GR51PP (hydrophobic/polysulfone) membrane with a series of hydrophilic (regenerated cellulose) membranes with the aim of increasing the retention of products and decreasing membrane fouling. The raw material used was a sodium-based spent sulfite liquor from the sulfite pulping process of spruce and pine. The results show that the hydrophilic membranes were superior to the hydrophobic membranes in terms of higher fluxes (up to twice the magnitude), higher product retentions and less fouling (up to five times lower fouling). The fouling was probably caused by pore blocking as observed in earlier studies. However, the hydrophilic membranes had a lower affinity for lignin, which was indicated by the lower retention and fouling. This also resulted in a separation degree, which was higher compared with the hydrophobic membrane, thus yielding a higher galactoglucomannan (GGM) purity. 2D HSQC NMR results show that no major structural differences were present in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic retentates. A techno-economical evaluation resulted in the RC70PP being chosen as the most cost-efficient membrane in terms of flux and product recovery.


2013 ◽  
Vol 864-867 ◽  
pp. 394-398
Author(s):  
Li Qing Zhang ◽  
Gang Zhang

Nanofiltration membranes act an important role in the advanced water treatment as well as waste water reclamation and other industrial separations. Therefore, an understanding of the factors affecting NF separation and membrane fouling in high-pressure membrane systems is needed. Recent studies have shown that membrane surface morphology and structure as well as surface chemical characteristics influence permeability, rejection, and fouling behavior of nanofiltration (NF) membranes. A comprehensive literature review is reported, targeting the physical-chemical characteristics of NF membrane affecting separation and fouling, including pore size, porosity, surface morphology (measured as roughness), surface charge, and hydrophobicity/ hydrophilicity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 102340
Author(s):  
Nafiu Umar Barambu ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Afiq Mohd Laziz ◽  
Nik Abdul Hadi Md Nordin ◽  
Mohamad Azmi Bustam ◽  
...  

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 976
Author(s):  
Normi Izati Mat Nawi ◽  
Syasya Ong Amat ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Nik Abdul Hadi Md Nordin ◽  
Norazanita Shamsuddin ◽  
...  

Wastewater containing oil/water emulsion has a serious ecological impact and threatens human health. The impact worsens as its volume increases. Oil/water emulsion needs to be treated before it is discharged or reused again for processing. A membrane-based process is considered attractive in effectively treating oil/water emulsion, but progress has been dampened by the membrane fouling issue. The objective of this study is to develop polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes customized for oil/water emulsion separation by incorporating assembly of tannic acid (TA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) in the polymer matrix. The results show that the assembly of TA/PVP complexation was achieved as observed from the change in colour during the phase inversion and as also proven from the characterization analyses. Incorporation of the TA/PVP assembly leads to enhanced surface hydrophilicity by lowering the contact angle from 82° to 47°. In situ assembly of the TA/PVP complex also leads to enhanced clean water permeability by a factor of four as a result of enhanced mean flow pore size from 0.2 to 0.9 µm. Owing to enhanced surface chemistry and structural advantages, the optimum hydrophilic PVDF/TA/PVP membrane poses permeability of 540.18 L/(m2 h bar) for oil/water emulsion filtration, three times higher than the pristine PVDF membrane used as the reference.


2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 1179-1185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Feng ◽  
Zhiwen Wang ◽  
Ruixue Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan Lu ◽  
Yuqing Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Anti-fouling copper hydroxide nanowires (CHNs)-graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites membrane was fabricated by a vacuum-assisted filtration self-assembly process. CHNs were covered on the surface and inserted into the interlayers of the GO nanosheets to form the rough surface and nanostructure channels. The membrane with water contact angles (CAs) of 53° and oil CAs of 155° exhibited superior stability, hydrophilicity, underwater superoleophobicity and ultralow oil adhesion, and hence it could separate the oil-water emulsion with a high efficiency of >99%. This membrane showed the combined advantages of high oil rejection rate and ultralow membrane fouling, making it promising for practical oil-water emulsion separation applications.


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