Validation of recycled membranes for treating brackish water at pilot scale

García-Pacheco, Raquel; Landaburu-Aguirre, Junkal; Terrero-Rodríguez, Patricia; Campos, E.; Molina-Serrano, Francisco; Rabadán, Javier; Zarzo, Domingo; García‐Calvo, Eloy

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2017.12.034

Cited by 64 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Morón-López et al used EoL RO membrane as the support for biofilm formation to selectively remove microcystins [13]. Chemical conversion is the chemical removal of ultrathin top layer and conversion of EoL membrane into microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes [6,[14][15][16][17][18]. Rodriguez et al, as pioneering researchers in this area, converted EoL RO membranes to MF and UF membranes by removing the PA layer using strong chemical oxidants, like NaOCl, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), and potassium permanganate (KMnO 4 ) [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

End-of-life RO membranes recycling: Reuse as NF membranes by polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer deposition

Moradi

Pihlajamäki

Hesampour

et al. 2019

Journal of Membrane Science

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Nowadays, end-of-life (EoL) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are considered as waste, hence they are incinerated or discarded in landfills. Due to the environmental problem of disposed membranes, their reuse as nanofiltration (NF) membranes was studied in this study. At first, the fouling of EoL membrane was cleaned and then the effect of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) on removing the polyamide (PA) layer and pure water permeability (PWP) of EoL membranes was investigated. With regard to NaOCl exposure intensities, three groups of EoL membranes with PWP of about 10, 20, and 30 L/(m 2 h bar) were selected as substrates to convert them to NF membranes by deposition of polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayers. The effects of PE type, substrate permeability, and the charge of outer layer on the performance of the resultant NF membranes were studied. As one of the best results, NF membrane composed of eight bilayers of SC498/KE253 polyelectrolytes on substrates with PWP of 18 L/(m 2 h bar) had salt water permeability (SWP) of 11 L/(m 2 h bar) and 94% rejection of MgSO 4 . Other results are also competitive with commercial NF membranes. The maximum NaCl and MgSO 4 rejection of prepared membranes were 92% and 98%, respectively, at a feed pressure of 10 bar. In addition, the stability test showed that the prepared membranes are stable over a long period of filtration.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

End-of-life RO membranes recycling: Reuse as NF membranes by polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer deposition

Moradi

Pihlajamäki

Hesampour

et al. 2019

Journal of Membrane Science

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“…However, as feed concentration increased, the permeate quality decreased, especially in the V-AGMD operation, and more for the AS26 than for the AS7 module. In any case, the SRF values obtained in the treatment of feed sources with salt concentration similar to seawater were higher than 99.6%, better than those typically obtained with reverse osmosis [41]. Results indicate that vacuum increased the passing of feed through the membrane pores.…”

Section: Permeate Qualitymentioning

confidence: 66%

Performance increase of membrane distillation pilot scale modules operating in vacuum-enhanced air-gap configuration

et al. 2020

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This paper presents the first experimental evaluation at pilot scale of the operation of vacuum-enhanced air-gap membrane distillation (V-AGMD) using two commercial spiral-wound modules at Plataforma Solar de Almería's solar desalination test facilities. The main difference between the modules was the channel length (1.5 and 2.7 m) as a result of having different membrane surface area (7.2 m 2 and 25.9 m 2 respectively) and different number of envelopes. Suction of air from the gap improved the vapour transfer through the membrane pores and the performance of the modules was significantly increased in relation to common air-gap (AGMD) operational mode, especially in the treatment of high salinity feeds. Increases of up to 234% in permeate flux and decreases of 68% in specific thermal energy consumption were measured. Depending on the channel length of the modules, the effect of vacuum led to extreme permeate productivity (8.7 l h −1 m −2) in the shortest, or to extreme energy efficiency (49 kWh th m −3 , equivalent to a GOR of 13.5) in the longest. These are the best experimental performances obtained so far with pilot scale modules in membrane distillation. A similar heat recovery concept is pursued by the Dutch company Aquastill BV, who fabricates advanced spiral-wound air-gap membrane distillation (AGMD) modules. Their novelty is that they use several rolled envelopes forming a number of internal evaporation and cooling

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“…The peaks corresponding to the PA (amide I and amide II bands and the C=C stretching vibrations of the aromatic amide bonds at 1664, 1542 and 1610 cm −1 , respectively [ 17 ]) were clearly identified in the spectra of the pristine TM720-400 commercial RO membrane but were not detected in the spectra of the recycled RO membrane confirming the total elimination of the PA layer.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This type of RO membrane was recycled using PA oxidizing agents such as sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) to fully or partially degrade the PA layer responsible of irreversible fouling [ 8 , 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. By applying different exposure doses to the oxidizing agent, quantified by units of parts per million of NaOCl used in the cleaning solution multiplied by the exposure time in hours (ppm·h), discarded RO membranes have been transformed to membranes for microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) or nanofiltration (NF) separation processes [ 10 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 23 ]. In other research studies, after exposing the RO modules to NaClO oxidizing aqueous solution, the membranes were transformed to anion or cation exchanged membranes for electrodialysis (ED) or to microsystin-degrading biofilms for membrane bioreactors by applying adequate approaches [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 24 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrospun Nanostructured Membrane Engineering Using Reverse Osmosis Recycled Modules: Membrane Distillation Application

2021

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As a consequence of the increase in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants, the number of discarded RO modules for 2020 was estimated to be 14.8 million annually. Currently, these discarded modules are disposed of in nearby landfills generating high volumes of waste. In order to extend their useful life, in this research study, we propose recycling and reusing the internal components of the discarded RO modules, membranes and spacers, in membrane engineering for membrane distillation (MD) technology. After passive cleaning with a sodium hypochlorite aqueous solution, these recycled components were reused as support for polyvinylidene fluoride nanofibrous membranes prepared by electrospinning technique. The prepared membranes were characterized by different techniques and, finally, tested in desalination of high saline solutions (brines) by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The effect of the electrospinning time, which is the same as the thickness of the nanofibrous layer, was studied in order to optimize the permeate flux together with the salt rejection factor and to obtain robust membranes with stable DCMD desalination performance. When the recycled RO membrane or the permeate spacer were used as supports with 60 min electrospinning time, good permeate fluxes were achieved, 43.2 and 18.1 kg m−2 h−1, respectively; with very high salt rejection factors, greater than 99.99%. These results are reasonably competitive compared to other supported and unsupported MD nanofibrous membranes. In contrast, when using the feed spacer as support, inhomogeneous structures were observed on the electrospun nanofibrous layer due to the special characteristics of this spacer resulting in low salt rejection factors and mechanical properties of the electrospun nanofibrous membrane.

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Validation of recycled membranes for treating brackish water at pilot scale

Cited by 64 publications

References 18 publications

End-of-life RO membranes recycling: Reuse as NF membranes by polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer deposition

End-of-life RO membranes recycling: Reuse as NF membranes by polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer deposition

Performance increase of membrane distillation pilot scale modules operating in vacuum-enhanced air-gap configuration

Electrospun Nanostructured Membrane Engineering Using Reverse Osmosis Recycled Modules: Membrane Distillation Application

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