Porous polymer membranes used for wastewater treatment

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of the most recent ultra-filtration techniques, based on porous polymer membranes, used for the treatment of wastewater from oil, mine and hydrometallurgical industries. The performance of porous membranes used in separation and recovery of oil and heavy metals from wastewater, was evaluated by the polymer composition and by the membrane characteristics, as it follows: hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, porosity, carrier (composition and concentration), selectivity, fouling, durability, separation efficiency and operating conditions. The oil/water efficient separation was observed on ultra-filtration (UF) techniques, with porous membranes, whereas heavy metals recovery from wastewater was observed using porous membranes with carrier. It can be concluded, that in the ultra-filtration wastewater treatments, a hybrid system, with porous polymer membranes with or without carrier, can be used for these two applications: oil/water separation and heavy metals recovery.