Hybrid activated carbon­nanofiltration membrane for the removal of anthropogenic chemicals in surface water of Sabah, Malaysia

• Main Author: Nurmin Bolong
• Format: Research Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sabah 2012
• Subjects: QD Chemistry
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/24661/1/Hybrid%20activated%20carbon%C2%ADnanofiltration%20membrane%20for%20the%20removal%20of%20anthropogenic%20chemicals%20in%20surface%20water%20of%20Sabah%2C%20Malaysia.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/24661/

Water is one of the vital needs in our daily life. The fresh water resources are not adequate even though this world has almost covered by 75 percent of water. The demand of growing population and pollution of anthropogenic Chemicals in aquatic environment are the problems that need to be solved. To ensure the sustainable water sources for future, the new advanced water treatment technology is needed. Therefore, this study is conducted to formulate and fabricate nanofiber membrane using custom made electrospinning, to study the characteristics of fabricated nanofiber membrane in terms of its physico-chemical properties using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Differential Scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, and also to examine the filtration and removal performance of the fabricated membranes with UF/NF Flat Sheet Membrane. When using Titanium Dioxide (Ti02) and Polyethersulfone (PES) formulation, the morphology influence by voltage of electrospinning. The fiber diameter decreased when the applied voltage is increased whereas at high flow rates the average fiber diameters and bead size increased. The higher the feeding rate during electrospinning, the thicker diameter of fibers fabricated. When the membrane is tested for pure water permeation (PWP), the result showed that the highest feeding rate produces the higher flux. The pure water fluxes of ultrafiltration PES membranes increased with pressure as expected which gain 26.1 to 22.5 L/m2.h.PSI in this work. PES membrane that is supplied with high voltage showed the lowest water flow rate and smaller pore size distribution of fibers. Thus, it is more preferable to use in water filtration. In addition, the low feeding rate has higher salt rejection but low reduction of kaolinite water at 100ppm. At the end of this study, the new nanofiber membranes formulation has been produced with better characteristic for filtration and removal purposes.