Abstract
This study develops electrospun nylon 6,6 nanofiber membrane (NFM), incorporating zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) as the additive for produced water (PW) filtration. Electrospun NFM is suitable to be used as a filter, especially for water treatment, since it has a huge surface area to volume ratio, high porosity, and great permeability compared to the conventional membranes. These properties also enhance its competitiveness to be used as reverse osmosis pre-treatment, as the final stage of PW treatment water reuse purpose. However, the fouling issue and low mechanical strength of NFM reduces hydraulic performance over time. Therefore, this study employs ZIF-8 as an additive to improve nylon 6,6 NFM properties to reduce fouling and increase membrane tensile strength. Results show that the optimum loading of ZIF-8 was at 0.2%. This loading gives the highest oil rejection (89%), highest steady-state pure water permeability (1967 L/(m2·h·bar)), 2× higher than untreated nylon 6,6 NFM with tensile strength 5× greater (3743 MPa), and a steady-state permeability of 1667 L/(m2·h·bar) for filtration of real produced water.
Highlights
Produced water (PW) is a major contributor of waste stream in the oil and gas exploration and production process
It is expected that by blending zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) in nylon 6,6 solution, water permeability can be enhanced since ZIF-8 is able to control the swelling phenomena in nanofiber membrane (NFM) water filtration due to its hydrophobic nature
It can be observed that at Z1.0 NFM, ZIF-8 nanoparticles have been embedded onto morphology of nylon 6,6/ZIF-8 NFM shows notable changes in comparison with the untreated NFM
Summary
Produced water (PW) is a major contributor of waste stream in the oil and gas exploration and production process. The issues of fouling and low mechanical strength can be solved by applying material and surface modification such as blending Numerous inorganic fillers such as silicon oxide [15], graphene oxide [16], and metal organic frameworks (MOFs) [17] have been introduced as additives to polymeric membranes for better separation performance. We employ nylon 6,6 for fabrication of electrospun NFM It has great hydrophilicity, good tensile strength, is very stable in nature, and has a high melting point which causes it to have great resistance to fouling, heat, and friction [24]. It is expected that by blending ZIF-8 in nylon 6,6 solution, water permeability can be enhanced since ZIF-8 is able to control the swelling phenomena in NFM water filtration due to its hydrophobic nature It will improve electrospun NFM fouling resistance for real PW treatment
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