Enhanced anti-fouling behavior and performances of nano hybrid PES-sio2 and pes-zno membranes for produced water treatment

Abstract

This research is implemented primarily to obtain the enhanced performance in terms of permeability, solute rejection and anti-fouling behavior of PES membrane towards produced water treatment by incorporating nano-SiO2 and nano-ZnO as nano inorganic filler. The fabricated membrane was modified through UV irradiation and immersion in Acetone-Ethanol mixture. The effect of several modification treatments is investigated in this study. Nano hybrid PES-SiO2 and PES-ZnO membrane were prepared using Loeb-Sourirajan methods (NIPS phase inversion). The casted membrane was exposed under UV lights for 2 min and followed by immersion in Acetone-Ethanol mixture for 24 h. The result of SEM and FTIR analysis confirmed that the nano particles incorporation change the membrane surface structure, while UV treatment and Ac-Et immersion significantly enhanced the hydrophilicity of membrane material. Nano hybrid membrane displayed high efficiency of oil removal up to >99%, the immersion in the Ac-Et increased the water permeability about 20% and caused slightly decrease in solute rejection. The modified nano hybrid membrane performed an anti-fouling behavior in produced water filtration process.