Application of polymethacrylatebased tangential flow filtration system for waste water treatment

Aldrin Felix Nat @ Simbas (2019) Application of polymethacrylatebased tangential flow filtration system for waste water treatment. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

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Abstract

The ultimate goal of a wastewater filtration process is to remove contaminants, thus leaving only clean water as the product. However, conventional wastewater filtration process requires improvements in terms of its overall cost and effectiveness. The most commonly used filtration system is the dead end filtration system which is prone to clogging. Tangential flow filtration (TFF), a type of filtration system where the feed flows tangentially across the filter, offers longer effective filtration life span compared to dead end filtration system. This is highly attributed to the limited filter cake build-up in TFF. However, a TFF system requires a good filter membrane to function and, for that purpose, polymethacrylate monolithic (PM) membrane was chosen in this research due to its dynamic nature of controllable pore size and reactive epoxy groups for easy functionalization. Several TFF prototypes were tested whereby the final prototype had a separate compartment to encase the PM membrane thus allowing easy access and maintenance of the filter membrane. The final prototype was designed and fabricated using a 3D printer and Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machine. A number of parameters (thickness of monolith, percentage of porogen, initiator content and initial polymerization temperature) were tested for their abilities to control the pore size of the PM membrane. Percentage of porogen was opted as the pore-determining parameter due to its practicality and cost effectiveness. The combined TFF system and PM membrane was then used to filter wastewater samples (turbid water containing PM powder, lake water and river water) followed by water quality test. Among the 60%, 65% and 70% porogen-based monolithic membranes tested, the 60% porogen content monolithic membrane gave the optimum filtration performance due to its smaller pore size than the 65% and 70% porogen monolith. The turbidity level of river water sample was reduced from 17.41 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) to 0 NTU and lake water from 9.02 NTU to 0.35 NTU. Water samples filtered using monolithic membrane of 60% porogen yielded no bacterial growth in nutrient agar even after 24 hours of incubation. However, no significant reduction or changes in the pH level of water samples before and after filtration. For total dissolved solid (TDS) analysis, a slight reduction of 68 parts per million (ppm) to 63 ppm was observed for lake water after filtration and a reduction of 36 ppm to 26 ppm was observed for river water sample. The monolithic membrane of 60% porogen content reduced the colour of lake water sample from 221 Hazen to 36 Hazen and 205 Hazen to 38 Hazen for river water sample. The combined TFF system along with the monolithic membrane was also tested for prolonged usage, and the data suggested that it is reliable for long term usage. The developed filtration system provides insight and alternative to the conventional wastewater treatment process, hence could be improved to be applied in remote areas where access to treated water is not available.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Keyword:	Wastewater , Tangential flow filtration (TFF), water treatment
Subjects:	T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Department:	INSTITUTE > Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI)
Depositing User:	NORAINI LABUK -
Date Deposited:	05 Mar 2020 08:24
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2020 15:07
URI:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/25089

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