High performance and antifouling zeolite@polyethersulfone/cellulose acetate asymmetric membrane for efficient separation of oily wastewater

Microfiltration membranes have emerged as a promising alternative for oily wastewater treatment due to their high efficiency, low cost, and ease of operation. In this study, polyethersulfone (PES), cellulose acetate (CA), and 4 A zeolite were blended to fabricate asymmetric membranes by the phase inversion technique and examined in oily wastewater treatment. Kerosene was chosen as a model polluting oil. The fabricated pure PES membrane (P), PES membranes incorporating 4 A zeolite (ZP), PES membrane blended with CA (PC), and PES/CA blended membranes with 4 A zeolite (ZPC) were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, porosity, and contact angle to study the structure properties of these membranes. The performance of membranes was examined by water permeation, oil permeation flux, oil rejection, flux recovery ratio, and relative flux reduction. The ZPC membranes showed the highest performance in comparison with other prepared membranes. Incorporating 4 A zeolite nanoparticles with 0.5 wt.% into the PES/CA blended membrane significantly enhanced the microfiltration performance and decreased the contact angle of the P membrane from 70° to 29.8°. The effect of operation parameters such as transmembrane pressure (1-4 bar), feed temperature (25-50 ºC), and concentration of oil feed solution (250-1000 mg/L) on the permeation flux and oil rejection was studied on the PES/CA blended membrane containing 0.5 wt.% 4 A zeolite (0.5%ZPC). The 0.5%ZPC membrane showed improved porosity of 87.7% and it gave the highest value of pure water flux of 91.1 L/m2.h, oil permeation flux of 75.55 L/m2.h, maximum oil rejection of 98.8%, flux recovery ratio of 97.7%, and relative flux reduction of 21.8%. The permeation flux given by the 0.5%ZPC membrane was improved by about 8 times that of the P membrane. Re-usability studies verified the durability of the blended membranes and their performance in oily wastewater treatment.