Copper Ions Removal by PSF-Si Spiral Wound Membranes of Different Porosity

Abstract Effluent discharged from various industries is one of the point sources of pollutions that affect the water quality. The effluent contains a high concentration of hazardous compounds of metal ions. Membrane technology using ultrafiltration membrane had proven successful in treating physical and organic impurities from water and wastewater. The importance of this study was to clarify the effectiveness of additive concentration in nanofiltration membrane for heavy metals removal. The physicochemical characteristics and copper ions removal efficiencies were determined for a different amount of silica extracted from sugarcane bagasse as an additive added to polysulfone polymer membranes. The PSF-Si membranes were fabricated via the phase inversion technique. The results show that silica in the formulation and fabrication of polysulfone membrane gives added value to membrane porosity, water content, and hydrophilicity. The most effective membrane in removing copper ions was the membranes with the lowest silica content, which is PSF-21 Si-2. The PSF-21 Si-2 membrane is hydrophilic, attracts a large amount of water, and gives a pure water flux of 56 L/m2hr to pass through the membrane. Moreover, the copper rejection increased from 92% to 98% as the copper concentration increased for the best membrane formulation PSF-21 Si-2.