Assessment of fouling mitigation, resilience and reliability of synthesized mixed matrix membranes

• Grant number: 22/10291-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Acordo de Cooperação: SABESP
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Lucas Subtil
• Grantee: Viviane Bezerra da Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Engenharia, Modelagem e Ciências Sociais Aplicadas (CECS). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Host Company: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Politécnica (EP)
• Associated research grant: 20/11059-0 - Development of ultrafiltration modules of hollow fiber mixed matrix membranes, polyethersulfone and inorganic nanoparticles, for water and wastewater treatment, AP.PITE

Abstract

Ultrafiltration membranes has been extensively used for water and wastewater treatment around the world to address the increasing demand and scarcity problems by using alternative water sources such as domestic wastewater. However, membrane fouling still remains as an important issue for obtaining systems' maximum performance. One of the options for coping with this problem is to increase membranes' hydrophilicity, what can be performed by the use of hydrophilic nanomaterial in the membrane polymeric matrix. This has already been done by many researchers, but the available data about the performance of the produced mixed matrix membranes are mostly related to lab scale evaluation and short period evaluation tests. There is a lack of long-term evaluation performance tests, which are not prioritized by the researchers. By these reasons, this project will focus on the development of mixed matrix hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes using inorganic nanoparticles and pore formers additives, using the phase inversion process. The produced membranes will have its morphology and performance evaluated using the newest characterization methods available. In addition, fouling tests will be performed using model solutions in a cross-flow test cell, in order to understand the associated fouling mechanism. The membrane with the best performance will be used for assembling hollow-fiber modules to perform long-term evaluation tests for natural water and wastewater treatment. For this purpose, two pilot plants will be assembled with different modules prototypes, a pressurized one for natural water treatment and a submerged one for wastewater treatment. With this project it is expected the development of a hollow fiber mixed matrix membrane with higher separation capacity and flow, and reduced fouling potential, making the membrane separation technology more competitive and attractive for commercial applications. It is also expected that the results of the proposed project will increase the potential for producing membranes modules by Brazilian companies (AU)