Fabrication of asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes from natural zeolite and their application in industrial wastewater
- PDF / 1,834,259 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 56 Downloads / 197 Views
(2020) 5:36
ORIGINAL PAPER
Fabrication of asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes from natural zeolite and their application in industrial wastewater treatment Hajer Aloulou1 · Hazem Bouhamed2 · Michael Olawale Daramola3 · Sabeur Khemakhem1 · Raja Ben Amar1 Received: 29 October 2019 / Accepted: 11 March 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract In this study, a performance evaluation of tubular ultrafiltration (UF) zeolite membranes developed from natural zeolite materials during the treatment of two industrial effluents is reported. These membranes were prepared via the slip casting process on low-cost natural zeolite supports of average pore size 0.55 μm. After sintering at 880 °C for 3 h, the average pore size of the membranes reduced to 8–11 nm. The membrane morphology was checked using scanning electron microscopy, after which the membranes were tested by applying them to treat wastewaters from the cuttlefish processing industry and the electroplating industry. This performance evaluation revealed that the pure water permeability of the membranes ranged from 118 to 176 L/h m2 bar, and the membrane flux during wastewater treatment was consistently higher than 74/L h m2 at 3 bar. All the prepared membranes displayed good chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal potential (> 85%), and the membrane prepared using the modified zeolite MZ/Z (which was characterized by a positively charged surface) displayed a maximum Fe3+ rejection rate of 90%. These results will be utilized to evaluate optimized and upscaled membranes for the treatment of dye industry wastewaters in Mediterranean countries. Keywords Ultrafiltration membrane · Slip casting · Natural zeolite · Wastewater · Industrial effluent
Introduction Communicated by Sudip Chakraborty, Chief Editor. * Hajer Aloulou [email protected] Hazem Bouhamed [email protected] Michael Olawale Daramola [email protected] Sabeur Khemakhem [email protected] Raja Ben Amar [email protected] 1
Laboratoire Sciences des Matériaux et Environnement, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Université de Sfax, Route de Soukra Km 4, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
2
Laboratoire de Chimie Industrielle (LCI), Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax (ENIS), BP 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
3
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, Pretoria 0028, South Africa
Inorganic effluents are produced by various industries, such as the textile, electroplating, paint, and stainless steel manufacturing industries. These inorganic micropollutants are generally toxic and nonbiodegradable in the environment (Shojaei and Shojaei 2017; Hocini et al. 2019; Kamble et al. 2017; Touati et al. 2019). Inadequate treatment of the effluents before disposal causes environmental contamination and health issues. The aforementioned contamination is an issue globally, including Northern African countries, especially those in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Most inorganic micropollutan
