Construction of ZrO2-CeO2 composite UF membranes for effective PVA recovery from desizing wastewater

Abstract

Ceramic ultrafiltration membranes play an important role for the PVA recovery from desizing wastewater. In this study, an integrated and thin (approximately 300 nm) ZrO2-CeO2 composite UF membrane was constructed, with a MWCO of 16 kDa and a water permeance of 116 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1. Nano ZrO2 particles were introduced to optimize the particle size distribution of the CeO2 dispersion, therefore improve its compatibility with the intermediate layer. The membrane also exhibited outstanding chemical stability in both acid (pH = 1) and alkali (pH = 14) solutions. In addition, the membrane exhibited excellent PVA separation performance under harsh conditions (operation temperature = 80 °C, and the solution pH = 13), with a nearly 100 % recovery rate of PVA and a stable permeance of 67 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1. Subsequently, the membrane showed outstanding efficiency for chemical cleaning, with the flux recovery ratio reaching 95.1 % under optimized cleaning conditions. Meanwhile, the pore structure and integrity of the membrane layer maintained stable during the whole process. Overall, this study provides a high-performance UF membrane from new material, which exhibits great potential for PVA recovery from desizing wastewater.