PVDF membranes prepared via thermally induced (liquid–liquid) phase separation and their application in municipal sewage and industry wastewater for water recycling

Abstract

To date, remarkable progress has been achieved in the fabrication of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes with high performance for applications in wastewater treatment. After a comprehensive overview of recent progress on the preparation of PVDF membranes via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method, this paper provided historical information about the plenty of work focused on the preparation and advanced industrialization of PVDF membranes that was carried out by Beijing Key Laboratory of Membrane Materials and Engineering of Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). The work followed the line of formula design, advanced production, and membrane module development. Firstly, an innovative PVDF membrane with good performance was prepared via TIPS (liquid–liquid, L–L) method based on exhaustive thermodynamic and dynamic researches on the membrane formation process. Secondly, advanced production of the PVDF hollow fiber membrane was achieved by an effective combination of material processing and unit operation. Additionally, different ultrafiltration (UF) modules were fabricated according to various application situations. The final step explored the possibility of using an integrated membrane solution that adopted the modules where wastewater treatment was intended for water recycling, as shown in four application cases. The application results have shown that PVDF membranes prepared via TIPS (L–L) method break through the traditional phase separation limitation and exceed performance expectation. This paper can be a useful reference for the preparation and development of polymeric membranes and modules.