Preparation and characterization of glass hollow fiber membrane for water purification applications

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2017-07, Vol.24 (19), p.15918-15928
• Main Authors: Makhtar, Siti Nurfatin Nadhirah Mohd, Rahman, Mukhlis A., Ismail, Ahmad Fauzi, Othman, Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan, Jaafar, Juhana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bovine serum albumin; Colloids; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Endotoxins; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Flow rates; Flow velocity; Fourier analysis; Fourier transforms; Glass; High temperature; Hollow fiber membranes; Infrared analysis; Infrared spectroscopy; Membrane permeability; Membranes; Membranes, Artificial; Molecular structure; Organic materials; Osmosis; Permeability; Phase inversion; Phase shift; Proteins; Pyrogen; Recent Trends for the Removal of Coloured Particles in Industrial Wastewaters; Rejection; Separation; Serum albumin; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Sintering; Solutes; Thermogravimetric analysis; Ultrafiltration; Viruses; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water Purification; X-ray diffraction; Zeolites
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-9405-7

This work discusses the preparation and characterizations of glass hollow fiber membranes prepared using zeolite-5A as a starting material. Zeolite was formed into a hollow fiber configuration using the phase inversion technique. It was later sintered at high temperatures to burn off organic materials and change the zeolite into glass membrane. A preliminary study, that used thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), confirmed that zeolite used in this study changed to glass at temperatures above 1000 °C. The glass hollow fiber membranes prepared using the phase inversion technique has three different microstructures, namely (i) sandwich-like structure that originates from inner layer, (ii) sandwich-like that originates from outer layer, and (iii) symmetric sponge like. These variations were influenced by zeolite weight loading and the flow rate of water used to form the lumen. The separation performances of the glass hollow fiber membrane were studied using the pure water permeability and the rejection test of bovine serum albumin (BSA). The glass hollow fiber membrane prepared from using 48 wt% zeolite loading and bore fluid with 9 mL min −1 flow rate has the highest BSA rejection of 85% with the water permeability of 0.7 L m −2  h −1  bar −1 . The results showed that the separation performance of glass hollow fiber membranes was in the ultrafiltration range, enabled the retention of solutes with molecular sizes larger than 67 kDa such as milk proteins, endotoxin pyrogen, virus, and colloidal silica.