This study investigated the applicability of membrane distillation (MD) to treat dyeing wastewater discharged by the textile industry. Four different dyes containing methylene blue (MB), crystal violet (CV), acid red 18 (AR18), and acid yellow 36 (AY36) were tested. Two types of hydrophobic membranes made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were used. The membranes were characterized by testing against each dye (foulant-foulant) and the membrane-dye (membrane-foulant) interfacial interactions and their mechanisms were identified. The MD membranes possessed negative charges, which facilitated the treatment of acid and azo dyes of the same charge and showed higher fluxes. In addition, PTFE membrane reduced the wettability with higher hydrophobicity of the membrane surface. The PTFE membrane evidenced especially its resistant to dye absorption, as its strong negative charge and chemical structure caused a flake-like (loose) dye-dye structure to form on the membrane surface rather than in the membrane pores. This also enabled the recovery of flux and membrane properties by water flushing (WF), thereby direct-contact MD with PTFE membrane treating 100 mg/L of dye mixtures showed stable flux and superior color removal during five days operation. Thus, MD shows a potential for stable long-term operation in conjunction with a simple membrane cleaning process, and its suitability in dyeing wastewater treatment.

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Seasonal green algae blooms in freshwaters have raised attention on the need to develop novel effective treatment processes for the removal of algae in water. In the present study, the performance of newly developed polytitanium tetrachloride (PTC) coagulant for the removal of freshwater microalga Chlorella vulgaris has been investigated and compared with titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4) coagulant and the conventional ferric chloride (FeCl 3) coagulant. The main benefit of using titaniumbased coagulants is that the sludge produced after flocculation may be recycled into a valuable product: titanium dioxide photocatalyst. Both titanium-based coagulants achieved good flocculation over a broader pH range and coagulant dose compared to conventional FeCl 3 coagulant. All three coagulants achieved comparable performance in terms of turbidity removal (i.e. turbidity removal efficiency > 97%); although TiCl 4 performed slightly better at the lower tested dose (i.e. < 9 mg/L). Zeta potential measurements indicated that charge neutralisation may not be the sole mechanism involved in the coagulation of algae for all three coagulants. Analysis of the dynamic floc size variation during floc breakage showed no regrowth after floc breakage for the three coagulants. The flocs formed by both Ti-based coagulants were larger than those formed by FeCl 3 and also grew at a faster rate. This study indicates that Ti-based coagulants are effective and promising coagulants for algae removal in water.