A comparative study of direct ultrafiltration process and membrane photocatalytic reactor system for textile wastewater treatment

Abstract

The critical membrane fouling phenomenon in the industrial dye wastewater application remains unresolved despite the extensive research on membrane technology. Therefore, the present study systematically assessed the performance of direct ultrafiltration (UF) process and membrane photocatalytic reactor (MPR) system (a combination of UF process and photocatalysis) in terms of flux decline and permeate quality analysis. Two types of UF membranes were used namely polysulfone (PSf) US020 (UF-PSf) and polypiperazine-amide (PPA) UA60 (UF-PPA). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and contact angle analysis were used to evaluate the chemical structure, surface morphology and hydrophilicity of both membranes. The direct UF-PPA membrane achieved the lowest final permeate flux of about 0.17 L/m2h at 60 minutes and the highest dye rejection performance of about 94.81%. However, the MPR system with the use of UF-PPA membrane recorded a maximum turbidity removal efficiency of 98.61%. The resultant outcomes of this study enhance the understanding of the membrane technology system and photocatalysis process.