Pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using polypropylene membranes incorporated with carboxylated and PEG‐grafted nanodiamond in membrane bioreactor (MBR)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to prepare polypropylene (PP) membrane by embedding carboxylated(-COOH) and also polyethylene glycol(-PEG) functionalized nanodiamond to improve membrane hydrophilicity and decline membrane fouling in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment. Porosity, contact angle, mechanical strength, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and membrane pure water permeation analysis were performed for the characterization of the membranes. The membranes with 0.75 wt.% of nanoparticles introduced the highest water flux, porosity and mechanical strength. The performance of PP, PP/ND-COOH (0.75 wt.%) and PP/ ND-PEG (0.75 wt.%) membranes was studied in a lab-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR). COD removal was more than 91% in all cases. It was found that antifouling characteristics, membrane resistance (R m ) and specific cake layer resistance (α) of nanocomposite membranes were better than of neat PP membrane. PP/ND-PEG (0.75 wt.%) membrane exposed highest hydrophilicity and maximum critical flux and anti-fouling characteristics. The results indicated that embedding nanodiamond in PP membrane can reduce membrane fouling in MBR.

Separation of Diclofenac Sodium Using Polysulfone Membranes Incorporated with Manganese Nanoparticles

“…7b, which illustrates that the PSF membrane provides the lowest permeate flux (10.57, 11.4, 17.23 L m −2 h −1 ) using feed concentrations of 30, 60, and 120 mg L −1 DCF, respectively. The results confirm that the permeate flux is directly proportional to the membrane hydrophilicity 58, 59. The addition of NP enhances the membrane performance as they facilitate water absorption by the membrane.…”

“…The addition of NP enhances the membrane performance as they facili-tate water absorption by the membrane. Moreover, the NP create regular structures due to crystal growth throughout the phase inversion process [59,60]. The PSF/Mn 2 O 3 membrane has the highest removal rate and permeate flux at a feed concentration of 30 mg L -1 .…”

Recent Advances on the Fabrication of Antifouling Phase-Inversion Membranes by Physical Blending Modification Method

“…Recently, the development of new antifouling materials has involved complex synthesis of additives. Some studies combine two sets of additives and blend them together into the polymeric matrix [ 81 , 289 , 350 , 351 , 352 , 353 , 354 ] to improve both antifouling properties and photocatalytic activities of the prepared membranes. However, this should be carried out with great consideration with regards to the ensuing thermodynamics instability of the system, and how this could also influence the viscosity and kinetics of the phase separation.…”

Enhanced Separation Performance of Polyimide Ultrafiltration Membranes Embedded with Deep Eutectic Solvent-Coated Nanodiamonds

“…Raeiszadeh et al 33 obtained NDs with high carboxyl content through air oxidation, improved the degree of dispersion, and doped them into the chitosan to effectively improve the adsorption capacity of methyl orange. Hosseinpour et al 34 investigated the properties of polypropylene membranes prepared by pegylated functionalized NDs in MBR, which has improved the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater. Vatanpour et al 35 prepared PES membranes doped with explosive NDs, which showed high removal rates for reactive green 19 and reactive orange 29 in terms of dye separation.…”