Fabrication and optimization performance for treatment of ship oily water by nanocomposite membranes using Taguchi method

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to optimize of ultrafiltration (UF) process using novel nanocomposite membrane for oily water treatment in cruise-ship. Three nanocomposite membranes consisted of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer, Zeolite Socony Mobil–5 (ZSM5) nanofiller, and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidion (NMP) polymer solvent have been produced which was denoted as M0, M1 and M2. N-ß- (aminoethyl)-v-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (AEAPTMS) was used to modify ZSM5 to enhance the dispersion of nanocrystals in the polymeric solution. Nanocomposite structures have been characterized via field emission scanning electron microscopes (FESEM) combined with Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and contact angle. Taguchi method was employed to design experiments using three different parameters (A: membrane type, B: temperature, C: pressure) and to optimize the process performance via single response (Y0: selection parameter, ‘SP’). Based on the Taguchi design and optimization, a significant model in analysis of variance (ANOVA) was predicted with the highest response (Y0 = 65.22 L.m-2.h-1). Taguchi also predicted an optimal operation condition which has achieved the highest oil rejection (99.7%) and promising permeation flux (105.89 L.m-2.h-1) by using nanocomposite membrane with 15 gram of PVDF/ 1 gram of M-ZSM5, at temperature 55oC and 2 bar pressure gauge.