The Performance of Microfiltration Using Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Membranes for Phenol Extraction from a Water Solution

Abstract

Two types of membranes, for hydrophilic and hydrophobic microfiltration, were prepared as flat sheets to treat a phenol-contaminated water solution. The membranes were fabricated using four synthetic polymers: polysulfone, polyethylene oxide, dimethylacetamide, and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. Scanning electron microscope measurements of the top-surface and cross-section images of the produced membranes were used to characterize them physically. Distilled water and water contaminated with phenol were used to evaluate the membrane’s performance based on the flux results depending on pressure, the concentration of phenol, and temperature variables. Meanwhile, the rejection performance was evaluated using the phenol-contaminated water solution. The results show that the flux increased with increases in pressure and temperature and decreased with increases in phenol concentration. Distilled water gave far higher results than water contaminated with phenol. The flux of distilled water ranged from 52.18 to 73.15 L/m2/h for the hydrophilic type and from 72.27 to 97.46 L/m2/h for the hydrophobic type, whereas the flux of water contaminated with phenol solution ranged from 26.58 to 61.55 L/m2/h for the hydrophilic type and from 29.98 to 80.55 L/m2/h for the hydrophobic type. Meanwhile, the phenol solution’s rejection was 60% when using a hydrophilic membrane, whereas it was only 45% when a hydrophobic membrane was used. The hydrophobic membrane showed high fluxes and low rejection. Thus, transport through this membrane is closer to having viscous behavior than that through the hydrophilic membrane; in contrast, the permeability through the hydrophilic membrane is less because the pore size decreases the viscous flow mechanism.