Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots

Polymeric reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used worldwide for production of fresh water from various sources, primarily ocean desalination. However, with limited service life, exhausted RO membrane modules often end up as plastic wastes disposed of predominantly by landfilling. It is impera...

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Main Authors: Liang, Lili, Veksha, Andrei, Muhammad Zahin Mohamed Amrad, Snyder, Shane Allen, Lisak, Grzegorz
Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160274
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1602742022-07-18T08:12:25Z Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots Liang, Lili Veksha, Andrei Muhammad Zahin Mohamed Amrad Snyder, Shane Allen Lisak, Grzegorz School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre Engineering::Environmental engineering Pyrolysis Hydrothermal Method Polymeric reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used worldwide for production of fresh water from various sources, primarily ocean desalination. However, with limited service life, exhausted RO membrane modules often end up as plastic wastes disposed of predominantly by landfilling. It is imperative to find a feasible way to upcycle end-of-life RO membrane modules into valuable products. In this paper, the feasibility of RO membrane recycling via pyrolysis and subsequent conversion of resulting char into carbon dots (CDs) through H2O2-assisted hydrothermal method was investigated. RO membrane module pyrolysis at 600 °C produced oil (28 wt%), non-condensable gas (17 wt%), and char (22 wt%). While oil and gas can serve as fuel and chemical feedstock due to rich hydrocarbon content, char was found a suitable precursor for the synthesis of functional CDs. The resulting CDs doped with N (4.8%) and S (1.8%) exhibited excellent water dispersibility, narrow size distribution of 1.3-6.8 nm, high stability, and strong blue fluorescence with a quantum yield of 6.24%. CDs demonstrated high selectivity and sensitivity towards Fe3+ in the range of 0-100 μM with the limit of detection of 2.97 μM and were capable of determining Fe3+ in real water samples (tap water and pond water). Economic Development Board (EDB) Nanyang Technological University The authors would like to acknowledge the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and the Economic Development Board (Singapore) for the financial support of this research. 2022-07-18T08:12:25Z 2022-07-18T08:12:25Z 2021 Journal Article Liang, L., Veksha, A., Muhammad Zahin Mohamed Amrad, Snyder, S. A. & Lisak, G. (2021). Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 419, 126472-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126472 0304-3894 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160274 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126472 34186428 2-s2.0-85110465275 419 126472 en Journal of Hazardous Materials © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Environmental engineering
Pyrolysis
Hydrothermal Method
spellingShingle Engineering::Environmental engineering
Pyrolysis
Hydrothermal Method
Liang, Lili
Veksha, Andrei
Muhammad Zahin Mohamed Amrad
Snyder, Shane Allen
Lisak, Grzegorz
Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
description Polymeric reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used worldwide for production of fresh water from various sources, primarily ocean desalination. However, with limited service life, exhausted RO membrane modules often end up as plastic wastes disposed of predominantly by landfilling. It is imperative to find a feasible way to upcycle end-of-life RO membrane modules into valuable products. In this paper, the feasibility of RO membrane recycling via pyrolysis and subsequent conversion of resulting char into carbon dots (CDs) through H2O2-assisted hydrothermal method was investigated. RO membrane module pyrolysis at 600 °C produced oil (28 wt%), non-condensable gas (17 wt%), and char (22 wt%). While oil and gas can serve as fuel and chemical feedstock due to rich hydrocarbon content, char was found a suitable precursor for the synthesis of functional CDs. The resulting CDs doped with N (4.8%) and S (1.8%) exhibited excellent water dispersibility, narrow size distribution of 1.3-6.8 nm, high stability, and strong blue fluorescence with a quantum yield of 6.24%. CDs demonstrated high selectivity and sensitivity towards Fe3+ in the range of 0-100 μM with the limit of detection of 2.97 μM and were capable of determining Fe3+ in real water samples (tap water and pond water).
author2 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
author_facet School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Liang, Lili
Veksha, Andrei
Muhammad Zahin Mohamed Amrad
Snyder, Shane Allen
Lisak, Grzegorz
format Article
author Liang, Lili
Veksha, Andrei
Muhammad Zahin Mohamed Amrad
Snyder, Shane Allen
Lisak, Grzegorz
author_sort Liang, Lili
title Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
title_short Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
title_full Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
title_fullStr Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
title_full_unstemmed Upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
title_sort upcycling of exhausted reverse osmosis membranes into value-added pyrolysis products and carbon dots
publishDate 2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160274
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