Membrane Distillation Technology for Treatment of Wastewater from Rubber Industry in Malaysia

The possibility of using direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) for the treatment of rubber processing effluent (DCMD) has been investigated in this work. The in-house made polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) mixed matrix membrane incorporated with inorganic material of Cloisite® 15A was employed as MD membrane and its performance was characterized with respect to permeate flux and rejection against several important water quality parameters. The obtained results showed that the DCMD process was able to reduce significantly the levels of total organic carbon (TOC), total dissolved solid (TDS), sulphate, colour, turbidity and conductivity in rubber industry wastewater, recording at least 96% removal efficiency irrespective of parameters. Nevertheless, flux decline was experienced in DCMD and this could be mainly caused by the concentration polarization, temperature polarization and membrane fouling itself.