Abstract
Water and energy are two of the most important resources used by humanity. Discharging highly polluting wastewater without prior treatment is known to adversely affect water potability, agriculture, aquatic life and even society. One of the greatest threats to water sources are contaminated effluents, which can be of residential or industrial origin and whose disposal in nature must comply with specific laws aimed at reducing their environmental impact. As the oil industry is closely related to energy consumption, it is among the sectors most responsible for global pollution. The damage caused by this industrial sector is present in all countries, whose legislations require companies to carry out wastewater treatment before disposal or recycling in their production process. Bacterial cellulose membranes have been shown to be efficient as filters for the removal of various contaminants, including biological and chemical agents or heavy metals. Therefore, their use could make an important contribution to bio-based technological development in the circular economy. Moreover, they can be used to produce new materials for industry, taking into consideration current environmental preservation policies aimed at a more efficient use of energy. This review aims to compare and describe the applications of cellulose membranes in the treatment of these effluents.
Highlights
As bacterial cellulose (BC) has hydrophilic and oleophobic properties [49], during the filtration of oily effluents or emulsions only water droplets pass through the nanometric pores of the membrane at a certain pressure applied to the system, which means that the oil remains on its surface (Figure 6)
The great potential of BC membranes as a filter material for oily effluent separation has already been demonstrated in some scientific works, as described earlier, and the key to optimizing their use in the industrial field lies in research relating to the control of their saturation and to the increase in pressure and flow rate they are able to withstand
Bacterial cellulose (BC) is considered an eco-friendly and extremely versatile biopolymer, and this is why studies have increased over the years that envisage its use in the form of filter membranes for wastewater treatment
Summary
The most commercially available membranes are made with synthetic polymers of fossil origin [14,15], which require large amounts of solvents and chemicals In this sense, interest is growing in the production of membranes based on natural polymers, especially those based on cellulose. There is still a limited number of works in the literature on its use as a raw material for filtration membranes to be applied to water treatment [10,19,20,21,22] In this context, the objective of this review is to describe and compare different applications of BC membranes in the treatment of various effluents contaminated mainly by oils and fats. At the end of the review, the reader can realize how much BC membranebased filtration systems, in addition to being sustainable, can reduce energy consumption and add several advantages to industrial wastewater treatment
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