The effect of crystalline rice husk silica on polysulfone membrane for wastewater treatment

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of additive rice husk silica and Polyethylene glycol(PEG) at different concentration on of Polysulfone (Psf) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. The polymer membranes were prepared by a phase inversion method using Polysulfone (PSf) , N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent and distilled water as non-solvent. The performances of the membranes were measured in term of pure water flux by using distilled water and solute rejection at different wastewater concentration at 50%, 75% and 87.5%. The results demonstrated that the addition 2% and 3% rice husk silica give the good rejection for membranes but the best rejection was at membranes contains 3% rice husk silica where successfully do rejection of 80.5%. As a conclusion,the range between 2%-3% of rice husk silica gives the ideal composition based on the result of flux permeation and rejection.