Synthetic polymer composite membrane for the desalination of saline water

Abstract

Development of desalination technologies has been identified as vital to fulfilling future water demand. In this research, composite membrane with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as separating layer material while cellulose acetate (CA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as supporting layer material were used. In the present research work, the synthesis and characterization of a multilayer PVA/CA/PEG membrane was attempted where membrane performance and applicability were investigated for reverse osmosis desalination of different feed concentrations of groundwater, brackish, highly saline, and also extremely saline water (seawater). Values of both salt rejection and water flux were assessed as a measure of membrane efficiency. In addition to suitable application of the prepared synthetic membranes, the antimicrobial sustainability was also evaluated where prospective function against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria was depicted. It can be concluded by this work that multilayer PVA/CA/PEG membrane performed excellently for the desalination of groundwater, brackish, highly saline, and also extremely saline water. The flux reduction was reduced significantly when PEG was incorporated in the composite membrane. The importance of structural differences for antimicrobial activity of the prepared membranes has been studied with the use of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Antimicrobial efficiency improves with the use of PEG and membranes with smaller pore sizes.