Desalination 333 (2014) 36-44
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Desalination 333 (2014) 36-44 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Desalination journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locateldesal Studies on fouling by natural organic matter (NOM)on polysulfone membranes: Effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) Muharnad Zaini Yunos a.b. Zawati Harun "b.*, Hatijah Basri ', Ahmad Fauzi Ismail " WGAW Depmhnent ofMatwink and Design Fa* ofMerhmdcnI and Manufacturing, UnivdTun Hwein Onn Malaysia. Rmit Rajk hluPahot 8&PW.]ohor, Malaysia Int- M-1 Proces, AdvmrcedMk ond Man- Cmtec Univerda' Tun Hlmein Onn MolaysirS Rui! Raja, Bofu PohotB6400,Johor.Wsia 'De~~echnologv ond Hen'kw. Frmlly ofsaence. Techndw andHuman Devebpnent Universili Tun Hunein Orm Malaysia Porit Raja Bntu Phhnt 86400,Johor. Malaysin Advonced Membmne Technology Rsmrrh Centre. Faculty of Cfmimland Natural Resourcer Engineer@, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Skudot 81300JohorBahnr,]ohor, Malaysia HIGHLIGHTS - --- Fouling behaviour of PSf by NOM - Different concentrations and molecular weights of PEG were used as additives in membrane. - Detailed mwphology and membrane performance wmdmacterized and measured. Real river water which posseses hydrophobic and hydrophilic charackristia was wed to evaluate membrane fouling. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT ArtidehidoryI Polysulfone membranes were prepared via phase inversion technique by using polyethylene glycol with Received 19July2013 molecular weights of 400.1500 and 6000 Da as pore forming agent in dope formulation. The performance of Received in revised form 21 October 2013 membrane was characterized using humic acid and water sample taken from Sembrong River. Jobor. Malaysia Accepted 10 Novwber 2013 was used as natural organic- matter sources. Membrane properties- were also characterized in terms of mean Available online 14 December 2013 pore radius, pure water flux. humic acid rejection and fouling resistance. The results indicated that the pure flux PEG Keywordt: water and mean pore radius of membranes increased with the increase of content. Fourier transform PSf membrane inkued spechumpy results revealed the presence of hydrophilic component in PSf/PEG blend with the signif- PEG icant appearance of 0-H peak at3418.78 cm-'. Scanning electron miamcopy analysis revealed the presence of NOM finger-like stnicture for all membranes and the smhwintensified as PEG content was increased. The results Fouling obtained from the fouling study indicated that the membrane with the lowest PEG content and molecular weight has an excellent performance in mitigating fouling. Q, 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. remaining consists of neutral compounds. bases and contaminants. Although these compounds are relatively harmless, they are able to Natural organic matter (NOM) is one of the major pollutants in form carcinogenic disinfection byproducts such as hihalomethanes acidic and low turbidity water source. In Malaysia, most of the water [2,3].In order to remove these substances and render environmental sources are contaminated with NOM especially that from peat soil. remediation. ultrafiltration (UF) has been recognised as one of the Natural organic compounds such as humic acid and fulvic acid con* attractive approaches that has been highlighted in many studies due uted to the natural colour of water (brown to black) which becomes to its compactness, easy automation, high removal rate of organic more visible if the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) exceeds 5 mg/L matter and also capabiity to remove vim [4]. Therefore, the removal of NOM is usually known as colour removal. Polysulfone (PSf) is the most commonly used polymer in the fabrica- According to Thurman [I],surface water in average contains about tion of UF membrane. PSf is known for its resistance in exheme pH con- 45%fuhric acid. 5%hurnic acid. 25%low molecular weight acid. and the dition and high thermal stability [5]. However, one of the major problems of polysulfone is its hydrophobic characteristic which often causes hydrophobic particle to adsorb on the surface of the PSf mem- brane. This phenomenon had led to membrane fouling and drastically * Corresponding author atl integrated Material Process. Advanced Materials and decreased the membrane permeab'ity. Manufacturing Center. Universiti Tun Hussein OM Malaysia. Parit Raja Batu Pahat Fouling is desmias pore-blocking. solute aggregation or adsorp- 86400. Johor. Malaysia TeL: + 60 74537608: fax: + 60 74536080. E-mdadhsex [email protected] (MZYunos). [email protected] tion phenomenon. Irreversible membrane fouling by proteins. NOM id (2Harun). [email protected](H Basri), [email protected] (AF. ha]. other biomolecules' adsorption reduces the flux of membrane and 0011-91646 - see front matter O 2013 Elsorier B.V. AU righes reserved http://dx.doi.org/l0.1016/j.desa12013.11.019 hf.2 Yunos ef a1 I Dsah hinders the wide scale application of UF membranes 16.7). The current T*l technique to counter this problem is by cleaning the membrane with Compositionof tasting solution aggressive chemicals such as hypochlorite, nitric add. sodium hydrox- PSf NMP PFGW PU;15OOa PEG6000a ide and oxalic acid at extreme pH [8,9]. These chemicals can only remove the adsorbed foulants for some time and the membrane must be replaced when this cleaning method becomes ineffective. The mechanisms and causes of fouling that strongly depend on the mem- brane surface characteristic (hydrophilicity, charge and roughness). concentration polarization, cake layer formation, foulant properties and water chemistry have been well studied and reported i7.10-121. " Represent moldar weight (Da). Among an these causes. membrane surface seems to be the most mdal factor tobe looked into since the properties of membrane surface could potentially affect the overall performance of the resultant mem- branes. surface modifications of membrane to obtain high hydrophi- licity. low surface roughness and positive charge haw been progressively microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy investigated in order to produce a membrane with high antifouling (FIIR) to provide further insights in the fouling mechanism of PSI -properties - 113-151. membrane. A membrane with good rejection and water permeability is usually prepared by incorporating suitable additive Urnugh an efficient fabrica- tion method. Various types of additive such as mineral fillers, polymer, salts. non-solvent and solvent were incorporated using different 2. I. Materials approachestoimprove the membrane properties [I6-1 91. Generally. inorganic and mineral fillers are used to enhance and create stability to Polymer solutions were prepared using polysulfone (UDEL P1700) the membrane performances. Hamid et al. reported that the addition of as polymeric material and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) (MERCK) titanium dioxide nanopartide in polysulfon~has reduced the fouling They as solvent. Meanwhile PEG 400.1500 and 6000 (Qrec) were used as resistance of the membrane 1201. also found that the additive an additive. Distilled water was used as a non-solvent bath for the has increased rejection of humic add up to 90%. ldris et al. studied the purposes of phase inversion. All chemicals purchased in this study effect of lithium bromide salts on the performance of a polyethersutfone were used without any further purification. hollow fibre membrane and found that lithium bromide enhanced membrane hydrophilicity and water permeabiity [21]. The capability of a strong non-solvent such as water as an additive in the membrane 22. Membrane pqmafion performance was studied by Yunos et al. [22]. They discovered that by adding water in PSf dope fornulation, pure water flux was greatly In this study. PSfpEG flat sheet membranes were prepared by enhanced despite the deterioration in the strength of the membrane. casting a polymer solution (18 wt%of PSf) with different PEG contents Typically, a low molecular weight polymer is used as an additive to im- and molecular weights on a glass plate. Table 1 shows the composition prove the pore forming of the membrane. Polyvinyl pyrmlidone (PVP) of various polymer solutions prepared in this study. Polymer solution and polyethylene glycol (PEG) arr the most common additives used in was cast on the glass plate with casting knife gap setting at 150 p membrane formulation 123-261. Investigation of PEG as an additive with an appropriatecasting shear. The cast solution was then immersed has attracted enormous attentions from many researchers due to the in water bath until the membrane thin film peels off naturally. The pro- ease of preparation as PEG can dissolve in water and organic solvent, cedures were conducted at constant temperature and relative humidity low toxicity and cost [26-291. PEG has shown promising potential (HR)(25 "C;HR 84%). in increased membrane pore size and permeability. Ma et al. have studied the effect of PEG on the resultant PSf membrane and they found that the presence of PEG has greatly improved the membrane 23. Smnning electron microscopy (SEMI hydrophilicity. porosity and water permeability 1271. The addition of PEG has also reduced the thermodynamic stability of dope formula- SEM JEOL GSM was used to examine the morphology of mem- tion which then led to finger-like formation in the membrane brane. The membrane was immersed in liquid nitrogen and fractured structure [26]. According to some previous reports [I6.30.311, surface-bound long-chain hydrophilic molecules in PEG were sufficient to form steric repulsion which prevents adsorption of protein molecules onto membrane. Zhu et al. 1321 found that the addition of PEG in membrane could