Abstract
This study investigated the impact of implanting TiO2-NPs within a membrane to minimize the influence of long-term operation on the membrane characteristics. Four poly vinyle chloride-titanium oxide (PVC-TiO2-NPs) membranes were prepared to create an ultrafiltration membrane (UF) that would effectively treat actual refinery wastewater. The hypothesis of this work was that TiO2-NPs would function as a hydrophilic modification of the PVC membrane and excellent self-cleaning material, which in turn would greatly extend the membrane’s lifetime. The membranes were characterized via Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), atomic force microscope (AFM), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The removal efficiency of turbidity, total suspended solid (TSS), oil and grease, heavy metals and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were investigated. Contact angle (CA) reduced by 12.7% and 27.5% on the top and bottom surfaces, respectively. The PVC membrane with TiO2-NPs had larger mean pore size on its surface and more holes with larger size inside the membrane structure. The addition of TiO2-NPs could remarkably enhance the antifouling property of the PVC membrane. The pure water permeability (PWP) of the membrane was enhanced by 95.3% with an increase of TiO2 to 1.5 gm/100gm. The PWP after backwashing was reduced from 22.3% for PVC to 10.1% with 1.5 gm TiO2-NPs. The long-term performance was improved from five days for PVC to 23 d with an increase in TiO2-NPs to 1.5 gm. The improvements of PVC-TiO2-NPs long-term were related to the enhancement of the hydrophilic character of the membrane and increase tensile strength due to the reinforcement effect of TiO2-NPs. These results clearly identify the impact of the TiO2-NPs content on the long-term PVC/TiO2-NPs performance and confirm our hypothesis that it is possible to use TiO2-NPs to effectively enhance the lifetime of membranes during their long-term operation.
Highlights
In recent years, drinking water scarcity has become a global crisis, in large part as a result of inadequate conventional treatment techniques
As shown the generation of functional groups was proved by employing Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra
A further increase in TiO2 -NPs to 1 and 1.5 gm reduced the pure water permeability (PWP) by 13.8% and 10.1%, respectively. These results clearly identify the impact of the TiO2 -NPs content on the long-term PVC-TiO2 membrane performance and confirm our hypothesis that it is possible to employ TiO2 -NPs to effectively enhance the lifetime of the membranes during their long-term operation and overcome the significant effect of membrane fouling
Summary
In recent years, drinking water scarcity has become a global crisis, in large part as a result of inadequate conventional treatment techniques. Were these techniques not efficient, but they resulted in toxic substance by-products, causing several million people to lose their lives from various diseases annually [1] Wastewater is a by-product of domestic, industrial, commercial, or agricultural. Types of wastewater include domestic wastewater from households, municipal wastewater from communities ( called sewage), and industrial wastewater [2] Rapid industrial growth, such as in metallurgical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, oil and gas, and food industries, has led to a large production of oily wastewater. Oil extraction and refining operations are accompanied by large amounts of contaminants [3]
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