The preparation of novel organic-inorganic composite membranes with controlled properties has been a point of considerable interest over the last decade. In this study, 5% weight fractions of Al2O3 and ZrO2 entrapped polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration membranes were prepared by the phase inversion method and applied to activated sludge filtration and to synthetic wastewater laden with heavy metals in order to evaluate their fouling characteristics and their metal removal efficiencies. The aim of this research was to compare the performance of 5 % by weight Al2O3/PES membranes and ZrO2/PES composite membranes and to the neat PES membranes during activated sludge filtration and heavy metals filtration. The major findings of this study are: 1. PES membrane characteristics and performance were enhanced by the addition of metal oxides particles to the casting solution, with increase in membrane steady-state permeabilities and decrease in membranes total and cake resistances 2. Of all the tested membranes, the Al2O3/PES membranes showed the lowest pseudo steady-state fouling rate, lowest cake and total residences and the highest pseudo steady-state permeabilities during sludge filtration. 3. Given that the metal removal efficiencies by the two tested membranes are comparable with the order of Pb > Cr > Cd for metal filtration, the ZrO2/PES membranes are superior in terms of membrane fouling and maintenance as they exhibited the lowest Rt (almost half that of the 0.05 Al2O3/PES membranes) and the highest pseudo steady-state permeability (y§) (twice that of the Al2O3/PES membranes).
This presentation is available to AMTA Members only.
Speaker
- Nerman Maximous, PhD
Company
- University of Western Ontario
Event
- AMTA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA
Session
- San Diego Biennial
Date
- 07/12/10
Media
Keywords
- Composite membranes, wastewater
Reference
- 9650-DP589