Removal of amoxicillin from wastewater by self-made Polyethersulfone membrane using nanofiltration

Abstract

The present study investigated the performance of a self-made nanofiltration (NF) membrane for the removal of antibiotics from wastewater under changing operating conditions such as pH, initial feed concentration, operating pressure, and temperature. Amoxicillin (AMX) was used as one of the commonly prescribed antibiotics. A self-made NF membrane containing Polyethersulfone (PES), and Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was modified with Polyethylene glycol hexadecyl ether (Brij®58) surfactant. The self-made membrane was characterized by water contact angle, zeta potential, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, and scanning electronic microscope (SEM). The obtained results showed that the AMX rejection and permeation flux by the self-made membrane varied from 56.49% to 99.09% and from 15.14 L/m2h to 110.29 L/m2h, respectively. The AMX rejection decreased at a higher level of initial feed concentration while other operating parameters such as pH, operating pressure, and temperature had a negligible effect on the removal of AMX from wastewater by the self-made NF membrane. The highest removal rate was achieved under conditions of pH 9.0, a temperature of 298 K, an operating pressure of 2 MPa, and an initial feed concentration of 20 ppm. According to the research findings, the self-made NF membrane is recommended for the removal of AMX to a considerable extent at low initial feed concentrations.

The effect of Merpol surfactant on the morphology and performance of PES/PVP membranes: antibiotic separation

“…Surfactants are surface-active agents, constituting the most important category of detergents [16]. For this purpose, various surfactants have yet been introduced, including but not limited to, Pluronic F127 [17], Tween 80 [18], Tween 20 [15], Tetronic 1307 [12], Triton X100, CTAB and SDS [19], Brij S100 [20] and Brij58 [21,22].…”

Improvement of the Characteristic of Polyethersulfone Membrane by Blending With Brij of Different Molecular Weights

“…Analysis using FTIR spectroscopy is meant to observe the chemical groups in the material. 31 Figure-1 presents the resulting IR spectra of the pure and Brij-blended PES membranes. The most distinguished structure of PES is denoted by the presence of SO 2 at 3096.11 cm -1 .…”

“…Brij with a lower molecular weight is easily transported by the solvent and hindering the formation of porous structure during the membrane formation. 31,38 For the varying concentrations, it is observed that, for Brij with higher molecular weight, the concentration required to produce the highest water flux is smaller and may be seen on the membrane with the addition of Brij58 (Mw 1124 g/mol) and Brij98 (Mw 1149.56 g/mol). The highest PWF value was obtained from the addition of Brij at 7 wt%.…”

Applications, Issues and Futures of Nanofiltration for Drinking Water Treatment

“…Membrane process has been increasingly used in water and wastewater treatment, because these processes can successfully produce water of superior quality compared to conventional processes (1,2). The pressure-driven membranes are classified to four types: microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO).…”