Treatment of Wastewater Containing Volatile Organics Using Hollow Fibre PDMS-Polysulfone Membrane System:Recovery of Organics and Water Reclamation

Abstract

Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from industrial facilities cause serious environmental problems. VOCs present in industrial wastewater are highly toxic to humans but can be valuable if it is recovered safely. A large membrane surface area is required for the treatment of dilute aqueous effluents containing dissolved VOCs. Hollow fibre membrane systems can provide a large membrane surface area per unit module. Here, we study the preparation of PDMS-polysulfone hollow fibre membrane system for application in separation of volatile organics from the aqueous stream. Dichloromethane, chloroform and dichloroethane of 300-5000 ppm in water, is used as model feed solution of aqueous effluent for the experiments. The results demonstrate that dissolved organics could be efficiently recovered from the aqueous stream, along with reclamation of water using the hollow fibre membrane system.