Environmental Sciences Proceedings (Apr 2023)
Activated Carbon, CNTs and GO Based Polymeric Nanocomposites Membranes for Textile Wastewater Treatment: Preparation, Performance, and Fouling Control
Abstract
Textile wastewater is a challenging area for treatment by membrane separation technology due to its complex structure and the presence of reactive components. Therefore, most of the conventional technologies appear incapable of offering satisfactory treatment for the effluents. This paper studies the application of activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, and graphene oxide base polymeric nanofiltration membranes (NF) in the textile industry, which usually produces large volumes of wastewater containing complex contaminants from its daily operation. Hence, it is accepted that NF membranes offer solutions to the problem. The primary performances of NF membranes have been examined in terms of dye rejection, salt rejection, permeate flux, and COD rejection. Some of the NF membranes achieved maximum separation of dye and salts while some attained higher flux. This is due to the large variability of the parameters of textile wastewater and the NF membranes selected. However, for all these attempts, the general issue of (bio)fouling represents a key barrier to full-scale industrial implementation. The low fouling tendency of NF membranes has lately gained substantial attention since they are an exciting addition to conventional technologies (i.e., adsorption, biological degradation, coagulation, and ultrafiltration). Polymers membrane blended with oxidized activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, and graphene oxide increased hydrophilicity, textile dyes, slat rejection, BSA rejection, antibacterial activity, and water flux enhancement from 60% to 100%. We present some nanocomposite membrane developments and demonstrate how they can be used to reduce textile dyes. In addition, the process of membrane fouling and the various approaches for preventing and controlling fouling are discussed.
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