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    Suppressing Salt Transport through Composite Pervaporation Membranes for Brine Desalination

    Year: 2017

    Journal: Appl. Sci.-Basel, Volume 7, AUG

    Authors: Li, Lin; Hou, Jingwei; Ye, Yun; Mansouri, Jaleh; Zhang, Yatao; Chen, Vicki

    Organizations: Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme [DP130104048]

    Keywords: brine wastewater treatment; pervaporation; composite PVA/PVDF membrane; graphene oxide; anti-fouling properties

    Pervaporation membranes have gained renewed interest in challenging feedwaters desalination, such as reverse osmosis (RO) concentrated brine wastewater. In this study, composite polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) pervaporation membranes were prepared for brine treatment. The composite membrane was firstly studied by adjusting the cross-linking density of PVA by glutaraldehyde: the membrane with higher cross-linking density exhibited much higher salt rejection efficiency for long-term operation. A trace of salt on the permeate side was found to diffuse through the membrane in the form of hydrated ions, following solution-diffusion mechanism. To further suppress the salt transport and achieve long-term stable operation, graphene oxide (GO) was incorporated into the PVA layer: the addition of GO had minor effects on water permeation but significantly suppressed the salt passage, compared to the pure PVA/PVDF membranes. In terms of brine wastewater containing organic/inorganic foulant, improved anti-fouling performance was also observed with GO-containing membranes. Furthermore, the highest flux of 28 L/m(2)h was obtained for the membrane with 0.1 wt. % of GO using 100 g/L NaCl as the feed at 65 degrees C by optimising the pervaporation rig, with permeate conductivity below 1.2 mu S/cm over 24 h (equivalent to a salt rejection of >99.99%).
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