Improving Performance of Electrospun Nylon 6,6 Nanofiber Membrane for Produced Water Filtration via Solvent Vapor Treatment.

Nur Syakinah Abd Halim,Nik Abdul Hadi Md Nordin,Zulfan Adi Putra,Mohd Dzul Hakim Wirzal,Muhammad Roil Bilad,Abdull Rahim Mohd Yusoff,Nonni Soraya Sambudi

doi:10.3390/polym11122117

Nur Syakinah Abd Halim, Nik Abdul Hadi Md Nordin + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11122117

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Abstract

Electrospun nanofiber membrane (NFM) has a high potential to be applied as a filter for produced water treatment due to its highly porous structure and great permeability. However, it faces fouling issues and has low mechanical properties, which reduces the performance and lifespan of the membrane. NFM has a low integrity and the fine mat easily detaches from the sheet. In this study, nylon 6,6 was selected as the polymer since it offers great hydrophilicity. In order to increase mechanical strength and separation performance of NFM, solvent vapor treatment was implemented where the vapor induces the fusion of fibers. The fabricated nylon 6,6 NFMs were treated with different exposure times of formic acid vapor. Results show that solvent vapor treatment helps to induce the fusion of overlapping fibers. The optimum exposure time for solvent vapor is 5 h to offer full retention of dispersed oil (100% of oil rejection), has 62% higher in tensile strength (1950 MPa) compared to untreated nylon 6,6 NFM (738 MPa), and has the final permeability closest to the untreated nylon 6,6 NFM (733 L/m2.h.bar). It also took more time to get fouled (220 min) compared to untreated NFM (160 min).

Highlights

Rapid development of oil and gas industries lead to massive production of oily wastewater that can contaminate the environment without proper treatment
The solvent vapor treatment was able to promote the physical fusion of fibers to occur at of solvent vapor treatment electrospun
It eventually reduces on membrane pore nylon size, porosity and

Summary

Introduction

Rapid development of oil and gas industries lead to massive production of oily wastewater that can contaminate the environment without proper treatment. There are several conventional separation methods that are applicable for produced water (PW) treatment. Membrane technology has emerged as one of the reliable and efficient remedies for treatment of oily wastewater [8]. It ensures stable quality of effluent and produces a small footprint. Nanofiber membrane (NFM) is one type of membrane that can be used to treat oily wastewater. NFM can be fabricated via melt blowing [9,10], phase separation [11,12], self-assembly [13,14], and electrospinning [15,16]

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