Filtration and Antibacterial Properties of Bacterial Cellulose Membranes for Textile Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) which is characterized by numerous original properties including high purity, crystallinity and mechanical strength has the same molecular formula as cellulose from plant source. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibilities of using environmentally friendly BC membranes for membrane separation. BC membranes produced by Acetobacter xylinum were grown in a kombucha tea medium. The effect of cultivation time on filtration properties of BC membranes was tested (from 10 to 30 days). Dead-end filtration was used to determine pure water and permeate fluxes. The hydraulic permeability coefficients (Lp ) of BC membranes were 20.5, 16.1, 4.5 L/m2 h bar for 10, 20, 30 days, respectively. The effects of applied pressure (2.5, 7.5, 12.5 bar) and solution pH (5.0, 7.0, 8.8) were examined on color and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. The highest color and COD removals were 85.9 and 73.8% for BC-10 and 90.9 and 75.1% for BC-20 membranes at 12.5 bar pressure and pH 5.0. Moreover, silver nanoparticles with different concentrations (2, 4, and 8 mM) were grown on BC-20 membrane to investigate antibacterial properties of the composite membrane. The results showed that BC membrane could be used to develop eco-friendly antibacterial membranes with potential applications in color and COD removal from textile wastewater.

Bacterial cellulose biopolymers: The sustainable solution to water-polluting microplastics

“…Particularly, BC has shown promise as a bioadsorbent matrix for removing dyes, proteins, and heavy metals (Kurniawan and Yamamoto, 2013;Mohite and Patil, 2014;Wanichapichart et al, 2002). This biopolymer has also been shown to be a suitable candidate as an environmental-friendly ultrafiltration membrane (Hassan et al, 2017;Isik et al, 2018). Hassan et al documented that BC acts as an exquisite ultrafiltration membrane to remove oil emulsions from water, yielding a removal efficiency of 98.3 and 99.3% for stabilized and non-stabilized oil emulsions, respectively (Hassan et al, 2017).…”

“…Hassan et al documented that BC acts as an exquisite ultrafiltration membrane to remove oil emulsions from water, yielding a removal efficiency of 98.3 and 99.3% for stabilized and non-stabilized oil emulsions, respectively (Hassan et al, 2017). Moreover, Isik et al successfully implemented BC membranes to filter water dyes from the textile industry, achieving a 90.9% removal rate (Isik et al, 2018). All these data highlight that BC biopolymers exhibit several other remediation purposes aside from the novel removal of MPs shown here.…”

“…When compared to the cellulose produced by other organisms, its high purity, peculiar physical properties, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and renewable character makes BC extremely attractive for industrial use (Wang et al, 2019), particularly in the food, biomedical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and electronic industries (Portela et al, 2019;Shah et al, 2013). Nevertheless, it was the absorbent nature of BC that has recently attracted the interest of specialists in the wastewater treatment field regarding its potential use in the removal of contaminants such as dyes and heavy metals (Isik et al, 2018;Kurniawan and Yamamoto, 2013;Mohite and Patil, 2014;Wanichapichart et al, 2002).…”

Sustained antibacterial activity of orthodontic elastomeric ligature ties coated with a novel kombucha-derived bacterial nanocellulose: An in-vitro study

“…In other words, one of the approaches to overcome the lack of antibacterial activity of BNC is to integrate it with various compounds and materials [ 26 ]. Interestingly, functionalized bacterial cellulose demonstrated great antibacterial activity [ 28 ].…”

Bacterial cellulose: An eco-friendly low cost biomaterial for dye removal

“…Additionally, some dyes have the potential to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, and genotoxic. Methods for dye removal that have been reported include membrane filtration, ozone treatment, chemical coagulation, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, photochemical treatment, biological treatment, and adsorption [4,5,6]. Among all these methods, adsorption is a cost-effective, efficient, and simple form of wastewater treatment.…”