PES electrospun fibrous membrane for oily wastewater treatment: Fabrication condition optimization using response surface methodology

Abstract

Dependence of the polyethersulfone electrospun fibrous membrane (EFM) performance on direct and interactive effects of electrospinning parameters and post heat‐treatment conditions were studied using RSM technique. A designed number of 29 EFM samples with different average fiber thickness and average pore radius were prepared. Modified quadratic models were developed based on the experimental results to predict the membrane performance in oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion separation. The low error of permeation flux (7.6%) and oil rejection (11.3%) models guaranteed accuracy of the modeling results. The optimum values of the studied parameters resulting in the membrane with promising performance, including polymeric solution flow rate, hot‐pressing duration, temperature, and pressure were 0.8 mL/h, 1.5 hours, 210°C, and 0.14 bar, respectively. The polymeric solution flow rate and hot‐pressing temperature were found as the most effective parameters on water permeation flux and oil rejection, respectively. The maximum predicted permeation flux and oil rejection of this EFM were 708 LMH and 89%, respectively.