A low cost hydrophobic kaolin hollow fiber membrane (h-KHFM) for arsenic removal from aqueous solution via direct contact membrane distillation

Abstract

In this work, a low cost hydrophobic kaolin hollow fiber membranes (h-KHFM) was successfully prepared by phase inversion/sintering technique followed by a modification via grafting with fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) molecules. The influence of sintering temperature varied from 1200 to 1500 °C on the hydrophobization and separation performance of kaolin hollow fiber membrane (KHFM) was investigated through direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system towards synthetic arsenic wastewater. The results reveal that h-KHFM prepared at a sintering temperature of 1300° °C induced a high contact angle value of 145° an excellent LEPw value of 2 bar, and an average pore size of 0.32 µm. As a consequence, a high permeate flux of 28 kg/m 2 h for As(III) and 25 kg/m 2 h for As(V) with 100% arsenic rejection was obtained at a feed temperature of 60 °C and has met the required standard of maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 ppb. In addition, arsenic concentrations of up to 1000 ppm with various pH values of arsenic were also investigated using h-KHFM sintered at 1300 °C and there was no arsenic detected in the permeate.