Membrane Processing of Refined Palm Oil Wastewater Using TiO<sub>2</sub> Entrapped Nanoporous PVDF Membrane

Abstract

An explosive growth of interest has been developed in creating of alternative process of crude palm oil wastewater treatment. Membrane processing offers many advantages as it can be used in almost the stage of oily wastewater treatment. Aim of this study was to investigate nanoporous membrane morphology and performance for refined palm oil wastewater treatment. The comparison of performance and morphology was carried out between neat PVDF and PVDF nanoporous membranes with nanosized TiO2particles of different compositions. Results of permeability and instrumental analysis illustrated that nanometer size obviously affected the PVDF membranes performance and structure. Smaller nanoparticles could improve the antifouling property of PVDF membrane more remarkably. Cross-section of membranes were observed with a field electronic scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The TiO2/PVDF membrane with smaller nanoparticles had smaller mean pore size on its surface and more apertures inside the membrane. X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiment was also suggested that the addition of 1.0 % TiO2nanoparticles had stronger effect on crystallization of PVDF molecules, poresize of 34.05 nm, contact angle of 53oand flux of 88.50 L/m2h of poresize. It can be concluded that nanoporous PVDF membrane with adding of TiO2has better performance for treating refined palm oil wastewater.