Rejection of endocrine disrupting compounds by membrane adsorption in nanofiltration and reverse osmosis (nf/ro) membranes

• Main Author: Abdul Gafoor Midhath
• Other Authors: Tang Chuyang
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Water treatment
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/39955
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Removals of selected EDCs by adsorption mechanism on NF/RO membranes were studied. Adsorption was mainly influenced by the hydrophobic nature of the compound, pore size of membrane, MW, surface roughness. Static adsorptions of EDCs were carried on NF270, NF90 and BW30 membranes. E1 was analyzed by the method of SPE followed by LCMSMS while DMP, DEP, DBP and DEHP were analyzed by the SPE-HPLC method of detection. The results of E1 indicated that surface roughness was the major factor for its high adsorption value. However, NF270 which is smoother showed significant rejection percentage. Larger pore size of the NF270 membrane enabling E1 to partition into the membrane matrix could explain its significant adsorption value. The results for the phthalates showed that hydrophobicity and MW were major factors for the adsorption amounts in these EDCs. Membrane pore size also affects the adsorption amount on small MW phthalates. Adsorption mechanism was primarily driven by hydrophobicity in DEHP, while DMP sorption was governed by pore size of the membrane as its MW is lower. Both hydrophobicity and membrane characteristics play important role in adsorption mechanism in EDCs.