Oily Wastewater Treatment Using Polyamide Thin Film Composite Membrane Technology

Sarah Elhady; Mohamed Bassyouni; Ramadan A Mansour; Medhat H Elzahar; Shereen Abdel-Hamid; Yasser Elhenawy; Mamdou Y Saleh

doi:10.3390/membranes10050084

Oily Wastewater Treatment Using Polyamide Thin Film Composite Membrane Technology

Membranes (Basel). 2020 Apr 28;10(5):84. doi: 10.3390/membranes10050084.

Authors

Sarah Elhady¹, Mohamed Bassyouni^{2

3}, Ramadan A Mansour⁴, Medhat H Elzahar^{5

6}, Shereen Abdel-Hamid⁷, Yasser Elhenawy⁸, Mamdou Y Saleh^{5

9}

Affiliations

¹ Public Works Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, the High Institute of Engineering and Technology in New Damietta, New Damietta 34518, Egypt.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said 42526, Egypt.
³ Materials Science Program, University of Science and Technology, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, 6th of October, Giza 12578, Egypt.
⁴ Chemical Engineering Department, Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology, New Damietta, Damietta 34518, Egypt.
⁵ Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said 42526, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Civil Engineering, Giza Engineering Institute, Elmoneeb, Giza 12511, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering, Egyptian Academy for Engineering and Advanced Technology, Affiliated to Ministry of Military Production, Al Salam city 3056, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Fouad 42526, Egypt.
⁹ High Institute of Engineering and Technology, El-Manzala, Ad Daqahliyah 35642, Egypt.

Abstract

In this study, polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration was used in edible oil wastewater emulsion treatment. The PA-TFC membrane was characterized using mechanical, thermal, chemical, and physical tests. Surface morphology and cross-sections of TFCs were characterized using SEM. The effects of edible oil concentrations, average droplets size, and contact angle on separation efficiency and flux were studied in detail. Purification performance was enhanced using activated carbon as a pre-treatment unit. The performance of the RO unit was assessed by chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and permeate flux. Oil concentration in wastewater varied between 3000 mg/L and 6000 mg/L. Oily wastewater showed a higher contact angle (62.9°) than de-ionized water (33°). Experimental results showed that the presence of activated carbon increases the permeation COD removal from 94% to 99%. The RO membrane filtration coupled with an activated carbon unit of oily wastewater is a convenient hybrid technique for removal of high-concentration edible oil wastewater emulsion up to 99%. Using activated carbon as an adsorption pre-treatment unit improved the permeate flux from 34 L/m²hr to 75 L/m²hr.

Keywords: COD; edible oil; oil droplets size; reverse osmosis.