Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste
Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymers are known for their diverse range of industrial applications and are considered important raw materials for membrane manufacturing. In view of circularity and resource efficiency, the present work mainly deals with the reusability of waste polymer ‘gels’ produ...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Membranes |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/13/4/445 |
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| author | Saleheen Bano Mukesh Pednekar Saranya Rameshkumar Dipu Borah Michael A. Morris Ramesh Babu Padamati Niamh Cronly |
| author_facet | Saleheen Bano Mukesh Pednekar Saranya Rameshkumar Dipu Borah Michael A. Morris Ramesh Babu Padamati Niamh Cronly |
| author_sort | Saleheen Bano |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymers are known for their diverse range of industrial applications and are considered important raw materials for membrane manufacturing. In view of circularity and resource efficiency, the present work mainly deals with the reusability of waste polymer ‘gels’ produced during the manufacturing of PVDF membranes. Herein, solidified PVDF gels were first prepared from polymer solutions as model waste gels, which were then subsequently used to prepare membranes via the phase inversion process. The structural analysis of fabricated membranes confirmed the retention of molecular integrity even after reprocessing, whereas the morphological analysis showed a symmetric bi-continuous porous structure. The filtration performance of membranes fabricated from waste gels was studied in a crossflow assembly. The results demonstrate the feasibility of gel-derived membranes as potential microfiltration membranes exhibiting a pure water flux of 478 LMH with a mean pore size of ~0.2 µm. To further evaluate industrial applicability, the performance of the membranes was tested in the clarification of industrial wastewater, and the membranes showed good recyclability with about 52% flux recovery. The performance of gel-derived membranes thus demonstrates the recycling of waste polymer gels for improving the sustainability of membrane fabrication processes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:45:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-22442c8c98064b0fbe06a5a1079982f2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-0375 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T04:45:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Membranes |
| spelling | doaj.art-22442c8c98064b0fbe06a5a1079982f22023-11-17T20:23:42ZengMDPI AGMembranes2077-03752023-04-0113444510.3390/membranes13040445Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer WasteSaleheen Bano0Mukesh Pednekar1Saranya Rameshkumar2Dipu Borah3Michael A. Morris4Ramesh Babu Padamati5Niamh Cronly6School of Chemistry, CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandAMBER, SFI Research Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandSchool of Chemistry, CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandSchool of Chemistry, CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandSchool of Chemistry, CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandSchool of Chemistry, CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandSchool of Chemistry, CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, IrelandPolyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymers are known for their diverse range of industrial applications and are considered important raw materials for membrane manufacturing. In view of circularity and resource efficiency, the present work mainly deals with the reusability of waste polymer ‘gels’ produced during the manufacturing of PVDF membranes. Herein, solidified PVDF gels were first prepared from polymer solutions as model waste gels, which were then subsequently used to prepare membranes via the phase inversion process. The structural analysis of fabricated membranes confirmed the retention of molecular integrity even after reprocessing, whereas the morphological analysis showed a symmetric bi-continuous porous structure. The filtration performance of membranes fabricated from waste gels was studied in a crossflow assembly. The results demonstrate the feasibility of gel-derived membranes as potential microfiltration membranes exhibiting a pure water flux of 478 LMH with a mean pore size of ~0.2 µm. To further evaluate industrial applicability, the performance of the membranes was tested in the clarification of industrial wastewater, and the membranes showed good recyclability with about 52% flux recovery. The performance of gel-derived membranes thus demonstrates the recycling of waste polymer gels for improving the sustainability of membrane fabrication processes.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/13/4/445PVDF gelspolymermembranesphase-inversionfiltrationrecyclability |
| spellingShingle | Saleheen Bano Mukesh Pednekar Saranya Rameshkumar Dipu Borah Michael A. Morris Ramesh Babu Padamati Niamh Cronly Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste Membranes PVDF gels polymer membranes phase-inversion filtration recyclability |
| title | Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste |
| title_full | Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste |
| title_fullStr | Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste |
| title_short | Fabrication and Evaluation of Filtration Membranes from Industrial Polymer Waste |
| title_sort | fabrication and evaluation of filtration membranes from industrial polymer waste |
| topic | PVDF gels polymer membranes phase-inversion filtration recyclability |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/13/4/445 |
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