Recent Progress in Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration Membranes for Separation of Oil and Water Emulsions

Abstract

Oily wastewater has become one of the leading causes of environmental pollution. A massive quantity of oily wastewater is released from industries, oil spills, and routine activities, endangering the ecosystem's sustainability. Due to the enormous negative impact, researchers put strenuous efforts into developing a sustainable solution to treat oily wastewater. Microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes are considered an efficient solution to treat oily wastewater due to their low cost, small footprint, facile operation, and high separation efficiencies. However, membranes severely fouled during the separation process due to oil's adsorption and cake layer formation, which shortens the membranes’ life. This review has critically discussed the microfiltration/ultrafiltration membrane synthesizing methods and their emulsion's separation performance. In the end, key challenges and their possible solutions are highlighted to provide future direction to synthesize next‐generation membranes.

Prospects of Polymeric Nanocomposite Membranes for Water Purification and Scalability and their Health and Environmental Impacts: A Review

“…More crucially, by altering membrane architectures and pore sizes, membrane filtration may selectively remove pollutants [ 14 , 16 ]. Based on membrane pore diameters and working processes, membrane science and technology have resulted in the creation of several approaches, including microfiltration (MF) [ 17 , 18 , 19 ], ultrafiltration (UF) [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], nanofiltration (NF) [ 23 , 24 , 25 ], reverse osmosis (RO) [ 26 , 27 , 28 ], pervaporation (PV) [ 29 , 30 , 31 ], membrane distillation (MD) [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], and forward osmosis (FO) [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. While MF is usually used for the removal of viruses, colloids, and macromolecules, UF is frequently utilised for the removal of suspended particles, prokaryotes, yeasts, and fungi.…”

Electrospun mats based on poly(vinyl fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) and hybrid carbon nanofillers as high performance ultrafiltration membranes

“…Another critical issue relates to the mechanical performance of ultra ltration membranes. In fact, while high porosity favors the rapidity of separation processes, on the contrary mechanical performance of materials tends to decrease [20]. In this context, electrospinning technique gives rise to nano brous membranes with interconnected pores that are undoubtedly more porous than those achieved via wet phase inversion, and other techniques but, on the other hand, their robustness is often unsatisfactory [20].…”

“…In fact, while high porosity favors the rapidity of separation processes, on the contrary mechanical performance of materials tends to decrease [20]. In this context, electrospinning technique gives rise to nano brous membranes with interconnected pores that are undoubtedly more porous than those achieved via wet phase inversion, and other techniques but, on the other hand, their robustness is often unsatisfactory [20]. To solve this issue, mats prepared by electrospinning are usually stacked to each other and thus welded by compression molding, with ensuing increase of mechanical resistance at the expense of permeance [21].…”

Hierarchically Structured Hybrid Membranes for Continuous Wastewater Treatment via the Integration of Adsorption and Membrane Ultrafiltration Mechanisms

“…Another critical issue relates to the mechanical performance of ultrafiltration membranes. In fact, while high porosity favors rapid separation processes, conversely, the mechanical performance of materials tends to decrease [ 20 ]. In this context, the electrospinning technique gives rise to nanofibrous membranes with interconnected pores that are undoubtedly more porous than those achieved via wet phase inversion and other techniques but, on the other hand, their robustness is often unsatisfactory [ 20 ].…”

“…In fact, while high porosity favors rapid separation processes, conversely, the mechanical performance of materials tends to decrease [ 20 ]. In this context, the electrospinning technique gives rise to nanofibrous membranes with interconnected pores that are undoubtedly more porous than those achieved via wet phase inversion and other techniques but, on the other hand, their robustness is often unsatisfactory [ 20 ]. To solve this issue, mats prepared by electrospinning are usually stacked against each other and are thus welded by compression molding, with the ensuing increase of mechanical resistance at the expense of permeance [ 21 ].…”