Effect of anions interaction on the removal efficiency of nanofilters for the potable water treatment

Abstract

The interaction between the ions and the charge of membranes can affect the efficiency of pollutant removal. The present study investigated the removal efficiency of hexavalent chromium and nitrate ions from both actual and synthetic contaminated water via two different commercial spiral wound polyamide nanofilters. In addition, the interaction of ions under different experimental conditions was investigated by using a Box-Behnken design (BBD). The Box–Behnken design optimized the contributing factors which included pH (5-9), the initial concentration of Cr (VI) (0.05-5 mg/L) and the initial concentration of nitrate (40-160 mg/L). The maximum removal efficiency of both Cr (VI) and nitrate was achieved at a pH of 9.0, as 99 % and 90 % for the Iranian nanofilter (NF-I) and 98 % and 82 % for the Korean nanofilter (NF-K), respectively. The results also indicated that as the initial concentration of Cr (VI) increased, the removal efficiency was enhanced while the removal efficiency of nitrate decreased according to the pH. However, by increasing the initial concentration of nitrate, the removal efficiency of both the Cr (VI) and nitrate increased. For actual water samples at an optimum pressure of 0.6 Mpa (NF-K) and 0.8 Mpa (NF-I), the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) and nitrate obtained was 95% and 76 % for the NF-K and 97 % and 86 % for the NF-I, respectively.

Keywords

• box–behnken design
• hexavalent chromium
• ion interaction
• nanofiltration
• nitrate
• potable water treatment