Separation of 17β-Estradiol Hormone Using Newly Fabricated Nanofiltration Membrane

Abstract

Hormones producing organs in animals and humans released naturally occurring chemical messages into their blood stream. The steroidal hormones which is 17β-estradiol produced by animals as well as humans are frequently being eliminate into the environment in their active forms. Recently, as the demand of chickens is increasing, the released of hormone also increased hence endangered the environment. Thus, the concentration of hormones in river need to be determined and poultry wastewater required appropriate treatment. In this study, a newly formulation nanofiltration membrane was fabricated to treat hormones from the poultry wastewater. The polymer polysulfone (PSF) are blend into solvent N-N, dimethylacetamide and polyvinylpyrolidone (PVP) as additive to enhance the hydrophilicity and fouling resistance of nanofiltration membrane. The Sulfonated polysulfone (PSF) was mixed at varying concentrations of polyvinylpyrolidone (PVP) from 1 to 5 %. In this study, major finding was the suitable range of polymer (PSF/PVP) that able to separate 17β-estradiol from poultry wastewater effectively. The result of the study justify that, as the concentration of PSF/PVP increased, the rejection of solute increased while the permeate flux decreased. The nanofiltration membrane able to reject approximately 95% of 17β- estradiol (E2) from the poultry wastewater with the concentration of 17β- estradiol retained is 0.5 ng/L. This was obtained from the optimum concentration of PSF/PVP in the nanofiltration membrane which is 3 %. However, the permeate flux decreased as the concentration of PSF/PVP increased. The evaluations were in order to analyze performances of newly fabricated nanofiltration membrane on the flux rate, estrogens and salt rejection. Therefore, nanofiltration membrane can exhibit the alternative method to enhance the wastewater treatment in terms of hormones separation for poultry industry.