Oil Removal from Produced Water by Ultrafiltration using Polysulfone Membrane

The present paper deals with the ultrafiltration (UF) of produced water using a polysulfone membrane. Membranes were prepared by the phase inversion technique using polysulfone (PSf) polymer base, poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) additive and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent. Prepared UF membranes were characterized by determining the surface morphology by scannaing electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), porosity, (iii) water contact angle, equilibrium water content and pure water flux, whereas membrane performance was determined by measuring permeate flux and oil rejection using oily synthetic produced water. With the increase in trans-membrane pressure in the cell, the permeate flux increased significantly, but oil rejection showed a decreasing trend. The best UF membrane performance under different trans-membrane pressures was obtained by maintaining >= 90% oil rejection using an UF membrane with the following composition: PSf-15%, PVP-5% and NMP-80%.