Fabrication and performance evaluation of tannin iron complex (TA-FeIII/PES) UF membrane in treatment of BTEX wastewater

Authors

  • Takalani Makhani Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Doornfontein Campus, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 17011, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa
  • Olawumi O Sadare Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Doornfontein Campus, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 17011, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa
  • Stephan Wagenaar Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Kapil Moothi Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Doornfontein Campus, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 17011, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa
  • Richard M Moutloali Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Michael O Daramola Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology, University of Pretoria, Hatfield 0028, Pretoria, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/wsa/2022.v48.i4.3955

Keywords:

tannin iron complex, BTEX, wastewater treatment, membrane, polyethersulfone

Abstract

Oil exploration generates produced water that is characterized as hazardous and toxic waste. Produced water contains a mixture of various pollutants, including monoaromatic hydrocarbons BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene), compounds that are carcinogenic even in small concentrations.  In this study, tannin iron complex (TA-FeIII), blended into polyethersulfone (PES) membrane was evaluated for the treatment of BTEX-containing wastewater. The membranes were fabricated using the non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method and loading of the TA-FeIII complex on the membranes varied from 0–0.9 wt%. The fabricated membranes were characterized using various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle (WCA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to check the surface morphology, hydrophilicity, surface functionality and surface roughness of the fabricated membranes, respectively. The TA-FeIII modified membranes showed increased pure water flux from 100 (PES 0) to ∼150 (PES 0.9) L/(m2‧h) at 100 kPa. The performance of the fabricated membranes was tested using 70 mg/L synthetic BTEX solution. Overall BTEX rejection > 70% was achieved at increasing TA-FeIII loadings compared to BTEX rejection < 65% for the pure PES membrane. Rejection of the BTEX compounds was mainly through the size exclusion mechanism. These modified TA-FeIII/PES UF membranes proved to be effective in the treatment of BTEX-containing water, and also have the potential to be applied in oily wastewater treatment. 

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Published

2022-10-26

Issue

Vol. 48 No. 4 October (2022): Water SA

Section

Research paper

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Takalani Makhani, Olawumi O Sadare, Stephan Wagenaar, Kapil Moothi, Richard M Moutloali, Michael O Daramola

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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How to Cite

Takalani Makhani (2022) “Fabrication and performance evaluation of tannin iron complex (TA-FeIII/PES) UF membrane in treatment of BTEX wastewater”, Water SA, 48(4 October). doi:10.17159/wsa/2022.v48.i4.3955.