• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.483-498
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• 2017

Novel mixed matrix membranes of Sodium Alginate (NaAlg) were developed by the incorporation ofunmodified, modified Phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) then cross-linked with glutaraldehyde externally. These membranes were prepared by the solution casting technique. Pervaporation (PV) experiments have been performed with pure NaAlg, unmodified NaAlg-PMA5, NaAlg-PMA10, modified NaAlg-mPMA5, and NaAlg-mPMA10 (wt. % of PMA 5 and 10) at 30, 40 and $50^{\circ}C$, to separate water-isopropanol feed mixtures containing 10-30 wt. % of water. Pervaporation results of NaAlg-mPMA10 produced a highest separation factor of 9028 with a flux of $0.269kg/m^2.h$ for 10 wt. % of water containing feed mixture. Both separation factor and flux for water increased significantly with increasing content of mPMA into NaAlg; a significant improvement in PV performance was observed for NaAlg-mPMA5 and NaAlg-mPMA10 membranes when compared to pure NaAlg& PMA-5, PMA-10 membrane.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.437-448
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• 2017

A high quality Na-X zeolite membrane was synthesized on a seeded ${\alpha}-alumina$ disc by the secondary growth method. Structural characterization was done by X-ray spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM and AFM imaging. The performance evaluation of the membrane was firstly tested in separation of glucose/water solutions by pervaporation process. There was obtained a separation factor $182.7{\pm}8.8$, while the flux through the membrane was $3.6{\pm}0.3kg\;m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$. The zeolite membrane was then used for desalination of aqueous solutions consisting of $Na^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Cs^+$ and $Sr^{2+}$ because of the importance of these ions in water and wastewater treatments. The effects of some parameters such as temperature and solution concentration on the desalination process were studied for investigating of diffusion/adsorption mechanism in membrane separation. Finally, high water fluxes ranged from 2 up to $9kg\;m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$ were obtained and the rejection factors were resulted more than 95% for $Na^+$ and $Ca^{2+}$ and near to 99% for $Cs^+$ and $Sr^{2+}$. Based on the results, fluxes were significantly improved due to convenient passage of water molecules from large pores of NaX, while the fouling was declining dramatically. Based on the results, NaX zeolite can efficiently use for the removal of different cations from wastewaters.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.395-409
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• 2017

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is a compact and efficient wastewater treatment and reclamation technology; but, it is limited by membrane fouling. The control of membrane fouling significantly increases operational and maintenance costs. Bacteria and their byproducts - extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) - are major contributors to membrane fouling in MBRs. A recent attempt at fouling mitigation is the development of aerobic granular sludge membrane bioreactor (AGMBR) through the integration of a novel biotechnology - aerobic granulation - and MBR. This paper provides an overview on the development of AGMBR to mitigate membrane fouling caused by bacteria and EPS. In AGMBR, EPS are used up in granule formation; and, the rigid structure of granules provides a surface for bacteria to attach to rather than the membrane surface. Preliminary research on AGMBR using synthetic wastewater show remarkable membrane fouling reduction compared to conventional MBR, thus improved membrane filtration. Enhanced performance in AGMBR using actual municipal wastewater at pilot-scale has also been reported. Therefore, further research is needed to determine AGMBR optimal operational conditions to enhance granule stability in long-term operations and in full-scale applications.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.529-541
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• 2017

A multi-effect air gap membrane distillation (ME-AGMD) module for pesticide wastewater treatment is studied with internal heat recovery, sensible heat of brine recovery, number of stages and the use of fresh feed as cooling water in a single module is implemented in this study. A flat sheet polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE) membrane was used in the 4-stage ME-AGMD module. The maximum value of permeate flux could reach $38.62L/m^2h$ at feed -coolant water temperature difference about $52^{\circ}C$. The performance parameter of the module like, specific energy consumption and gain output ratio (GOR) was investigated for the module with and without heat recovery. Also, the module performance was characterized with respect to the separation efficiency of several important water quality parameters. The removal efficiency of the module was found to be >98.8% irrespective water quality parameters. During the experiment the membrane fouling was caused due to the deposition of the salt/crystal on the membrane surface. The membrane fouling was controlled by membrane module washing cycle 9 h and also by acidification of the feed water (pH=4) using 0.1M HCl solution.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.543-551
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• 2017

Membrane fouling in membrane bioreactor (MBR) remains a primary challenge for its wider application. The focus of this study to investigate the influence of iron distribution in activated sludge on gel layer fouling in MBR. Significant reduction in the transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise rates was observed in the presence of iron as result of retarding the gel layer formation time. The spatial distribution of iron had a significant impact on the stratification structure of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) fractions, such as proteins (PN) and polysaccharides (PS). A mitigation of PN or PS from the supernatant to the EPS inner layers was observed in the presence of iron. Compared with the control reactor, the reduction in PN and PS of the supernatant and lower PN/PS rates of the LB-EPS were beneficial to decrease the membrane fouling potential during the gel layer formation. Consequently, the iron addition managed to control gel layer fouling could be a useful strategy in MBR.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.563-574
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• 2017

Antibacterial effective, high performanced, novel ZnO embedded composite membranes were obtained by blendig ZnO nanoparticles with polysulfone. IR, TG/DTG, XRD and SEM analysis were performed to characterize structure and morphology of ZnO nanoparticles and composite membranes. Contact angle, EWC, porosity and pore structure properties of composite membranes were investigated. Cross-flow filtration studies were performed to investigation of performances of prepared membranes. It was found from the cross section SEM images that ZnO nanoparticles dispersed homogenously up to additive amount of 2% and the membrane skin layer thicknesses increased in the presence of ZnO. Contact angle of pure PSf membranes were reduced from $70^{\circ}$ to $55^{\circ}$ after addition of 4% ZnO. Porosity of composite membrane contains 1% ZnO was higher about 22% than pure PSf membrane. BSA rejection ratio and PWF of 0.5% ZnO embedded composite membrane became 2.2 and 2.3 times higher than pure PSf membrane. It was determined from flux recovery ratios that ZnO additive increased the fouling resistance of composite membranes. Also, the bacterial killing ability of ZnO is well known and there are many researches related to this in the literature. Therefore, it is expected that prepared composite membranes will show antibacterial effect.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.613-623
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• 2017

We report the novel thin film composite RO membrane modified by graphene oxide. The thin film composite RO membrane was exposed to 2000 mg/l sodium hypochloride; thereafter it was subjected to different graphene oxide concentration ranging from 50 mg/l to 1000 mg/l in water. The resultant membrane was crosslinked with 5000 mg/l N-hydroxysuccinimide. The performance of different membranes were analysed by solute rejection and water-flux measurement. It was found that 100 mg/l graphene oxide exposure followed by 5000 mg/l N-hydroxysuccinimide treatment resulted in the membrane with the highest solute rejection of 97.78% and water-flux of 4.64 Liter per sqm per hour per bar g. The membranes were characterized by contact angle for hydrophilicity, scanning electron micrographs for surface morphology, energy dispersive X-Ray for chemical composition of the surface, Atomic force microscope for surface roughness, ATR-FTIR for chemical structure identification. It was found that the graphene oxide modified membrane increases the salt rejection performance after exposure to high-fouling water containing albumin. Highly hydrophilic, antifouling surface formation with the nanomaterial led to the improved membrane performance. Moreover, the protocol of incorporating nanomaterial by this post-treatment is simple and can be applied to any RO membrane after it is manufactured.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.575-590
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• 2017

PolyHIPEs membrane prepared with styrene (St), divinylbenzene (DVB), and ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA) can yield a unique pore structure provided by large voids highly interconnected by many small window throats. With the advantageous pore structure, PolyHIPE presents a potential as a support for carrier facilitated transport membrane. Tricaprylmethylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) can be efficiently incorporated into the PolyHIPE membrane by a two-step solvent-nonsolvent method to obtain an Aliquat 336-immobilized PolyHIPE membrane with good stability. The study of Cr (VI) transport through Aliquat 336-immobilized PolyHIPE membrane indicates that the membrane has high initial flux and maxima stripping flux ($J_f^o=15.01({\mu}mol/m^2s)$, $J_s^{max}=6.15({\mu}mol/m^2s)$). The reusability study shows that the Aliquat 336-immobilized PolyHIPE membrane can maintain high Cr(VI) recovery efficiency even after 15 cycles of operations. The developed membrane was also used in the separation of Cr (VI) from other anions (i.e., $SO_4{^{2-}}$ and $NO_3{^-}$) and other cations (i.e., Ni (II), Mg (II) and Cu (II)) with good selectivity.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.517-528
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• 2017

This study evaluates the performance of membrane bioreactor (MBR) coupled with a modified walnut shell granular activated carbon (WSGAC) for tannery wastewater treatment. For this purpose, a pilot with overall volume of 80L and 12 hours hydraulic retention time (HRT) is operated in three scenarios. Here, the chemical oxidation demand (COD) of wastewater is reduced more than 98% in both C:N ratios of 13 (S1) and 6.5 (S2). This performance also remains intact when alkalinity depletes and pH reduces below 6 (S3). The ammonium removal ranges between 99% (S2) and 70% (S3). The reliability of system in different operating conditions is due to high solids retention time and larger flocs formation in MBR. The average breakthrough periods of WSGAC are determined between 15 minutes (S2) and 25 minutes (S1). In this period, the overall nitrate removal of MBR-WSGAC exceeds 95%. It is also realized that adding no chemicals for alkalinity stabilization and consequently pH reduction of MBR effluent (S3) can slightly lengthen the breakthrough from 15 to 20 minutes. Consequently, MBR can successfully remove the organic content of tannery wastewater even in adverse operational conditions and provide proper influent for WSGAC.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of lignin fractionated from waste wood (WW) using a two-step process of ethanol organosolv pretreatment followed by ultrafiltration with membranes of different molecular weight cut-offs (1, 5 and 20 kDa). The different permeates obtained were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The analysis by FT-IR and NMR of these lignins showed that the lignin core was successfully separated from WW. TGA curves confirmed that the thermal properties of lignin fractionated by ultrafiltration were almost identical to each other. The results from GPC confirmed that fractionating of lignin was achieved by ultrafiltration. For the membrane fractionation process, values of molecular weight decreased as the cut-offs used to obtain the fractions became smaller. As a result, fractionating lignin by a two-step process allowed separating different fractions of lignin of different molecular weights yielded high purity without interference from existing pollutants in WW. The two-step process offers the possibility of using fractionated WW as an untapped source of lignin.