Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment

Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising means for high-purity separations like that needed for potable water. The benefits of MD have not been realized for the treatment of surface or ground water, whereby the presence of both humic acid and calcium are detrimental to other membrane-based processe...

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Main Authors: Han, Le, Xiao, Tong, Tan, Yong Zen, Fane, Anthony Gordon, Chew, Jia Wei
Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83081
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44042
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-830812020-03-07T11:35:25Z Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment Han, Le Xiao, Tong Tan, Yong Zen Fane, Anthony Gordon Chew, Jia Wei School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Direct contact membrane distillation Contaminant Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising means for high-purity separations like that needed for potable water. The benefits of MD have not been realized for the treatment of surface or ground water, whereby the presence of both humic acid and calcium are detrimental to other membrane-based processes. Accordingly, this study investigated the efficacy of MD in rejecting various contaminants, namely, ibuprofen, boron and arsenic, in the presence of typical feeds comprising humic acid, calcium chloride and sodium chloride. Feeds investigated ranged from DI water to synthetic feeds mimicking surface water to NEWater brine. Results consistently indicate constant permeate fluxes and low conductivities throughout the experiments with varying concentrations of humic acid and calcium, along with varying pH values, which implies negligible membrane fouling and wetting. Also, complete rejections of boron and arsenic were achieved, while rejection of ibuprofen was approximately 90%. The detection of the non-volatile ibuprofen and humic acid in the permeate suggests some hydrophobic interactions with the membrane. Finally, a cost analysis was carried out to evaluate MD against the conventional nanofiltration (NF) process. Although MD is currently at a higher cost than NF, (i) the availability of improved membranes tailored for MD and low-cost heat would depress costs to at least that of NF, and (ii) the performance of MD is superior in terms of sustained flux over prolonged periods, capacity to treat feeds with higher concentrations of foulants, and better permeate quality. MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) EDB (Economic Devt. Board, S’pore) 2017-11-15T05:23:30Z 2019-12-06T15:11:30Z 2017-11-15T05:23:30Z 2019-12-06T15:11:30Z 2017 2017 Journal Article Han, L., Xiao, T., Tan, Y. Z., Fane, A. G., & Chew, J. W. (2017). Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment. Journal of Membrane Science, 541, 291-299. 0376-7388 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83081 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44042 10.1016/j.memsci.2017.07.013 200288 en Journal of Membrane Science © 2017 Elsevier.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Direct contact membrane distillation
Contaminant
spellingShingle Direct contact membrane distillation
Contaminant
Han, Le
Xiao, Tong
Tan, Yong Zen
Fane, Anthony Gordon
Chew, Jia Wei
Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
description Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising means for high-purity separations like that needed for potable water. The benefits of MD have not been realized for the treatment of surface or ground water, whereby the presence of both humic acid and calcium are detrimental to other membrane-based processes. Accordingly, this study investigated the efficacy of MD in rejecting various contaminants, namely, ibuprofen, boron and arsenic, in the presence of typical feeds comprising humic acid, calcium chloride and sodium chloride. Feeds investigated ranged from DI water to synthetic feeds mimicking surface water to NEWater brine. Results consistently indicate constant permeate fluxes and low conductivities throughout the experiments with varying concentrations of humic acid and calcium, along with varying pH values, which implies negligible membrane fouling and wetting. Also, complete rejections of boron and arsenic were achieved, while rejection of ibuprofen was approximately 90%. The detection of the non-volatile ibuprofen and humic acid in the permeate suggests some hydrophobic interactions with the membrane. Finally, a cost analysis was carried out to evaluate MD against the conventional nanofiltration (NF) process. Although MD is currently at a higher cost than NF, (i) the availability of improved membranes tailored for MD and low-cost heat would depress costs to at least that of NF, and (ii) the performance of MD is superior in terms of sustained flux over prolonged periods, capacity to treat feeds with higher concentrations of foulants, and better permeate quality.
author2 School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
author_facet School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Han, Le
Xiao, Tong
Tan, Yong Zen
Fane, Anthony Gordon
Chew, Jia Wei
format Article
author Han, Le
Xiao, Tong
Tan, Yong Zen
Fane, Anthony Gordon
Chew, Jia Wei
author_sort Han, Le
title Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
title_short Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
title_full Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
title_fullStr Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
title_full_unstemmed Contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
title_sort contaminant rejection in the presence of humic acid by membrane distillation for surface water treatment
publishDate 2017
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83081
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44042
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