Unraveling flux behavior of superhydrophilic loose nanofiltration membranes during textile wastewater treatment

Jiuyang Lin, Chuyang Y. Tang, Wenyuan Ye, Shi Peng Sun, Shadi H. Hamdan, Alexander Volodin, Chris Van Haesendonck, Arcadio Sotto, Patricia Luis, Bart Van der Bruggen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

238 Scopus citations

Abstract

Loose nanofiltration (NF) membranes can be used to treat textile wastewater effectively, providing an attracted avenue for resource recovery (i.e., dye purification and salt reuse) at the premise of the integration of high dye retention and salt permeation. However, the issue of membrane fouling has to be adequately addressed in view of its practical application. In this study, superhydrophilic loose NF membranes (Sepro NF 6 and NF 2A, Ultura) were applied for textile wastewater treatment. Synthetic solutions containing dyes and NaCl were used as the feed stream of a NF unit. It was found that two factors, namely cake-enhanced concentration polarization and the formation of a dye cake layer, dramatically deteriorated the flux of NF membranes with a synergic effect. In viewpoint of realistic application, diafiltration of a binary dye/salt mixture indicates that cake-enhanced concentration polarization plays a dominant role for the low membrane flux. As the diafiltration continued, cake-enhanced concentration polarization was alleviated with a decreasing concentration of salt in the feed. At the subsequent post-concentration procedure, the formation of a dye cake layer slightly compromised the membrane flux, but the negative impact of cake-enhanced concentration polarization was negligible due to the small quantity of salt remained in the feed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)690-702
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume493
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2015

Keywords

  • Cake-enhanced concentration polarization
  • Dye/salt binary mixture
  • Flux decline
  • Fouling and cleaning
  • Superhydrophilic loose NF membranes

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