Performance Comparison of Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors for Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Penicillin-G from Wastewater

Abstract

Pharmaceutical waste is one of the considerable problems of the environment. Membrane contactors are used to treat various of wastewater. This study compared the effectiveness of polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) and polysulfone (PSF) membrane contactors in separating antibiotics from pharmaceutical wastewater. For this purpose, PVDF-HFP hollow fiber membranes were prepared using the non-solvent phase separation (NIPS) method. Hollow fiber membranes were characterized. Penicillin G was extracted from pharmaceutical wastewater with a liquid-liquid membrane contacting system. Optimizing the operational variables of penicillin G extraction was done using the response surface method. The results showed that the PVDF-HFP membrane has an open structure with large finger-like cavities, fragile outer skin, and an inner skinless layer. This membrane has an average surface pore size, total porosity, and water contact angle of 0.04 µm, 84%, and 94°, respectively. PVDF-HFP membrane showed the maximum penicillin G extraction flux of 1.54 × 10-3 kg/m2s in the optimal operating conditions of aqueous phase flow rate of 51 ml/min and organic phase flow rate of 144 ml/min. By comparing the characteristics and using the response surface method, it was determined that the PVDF-HFP membrane contactor has a higher extraction flux than PSF in separating penicillin G from pharmaceutical wastewater.

Keywords

• membrane contactor
• pharmaceutical wastewater
• penicillin g
• response surface methodology