Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent

Thesis (PhD.)

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Subramaniam, Mahesan Naidu
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://openscience.utm.my/handle/123456789/752
_version_ 1796848981191426048
author Subramaniam, Mahesan Naidu
author_facet Subramaniam, Mahesan Naidu
author_sort Subramaniam, Mahesan Naidu
collection OpenScience
description Thesis (PhD.)
first_indexed 2024-03-05T17:34:42Z
format Thesis
id oai:openscience.utm.my:123456789/752
institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia - OpenScience
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-05T17:34:42Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
record_format dspace
spelling oai:openscience.utm.my:123456789/7522023-09-21T12:00:47Z Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent Subramaniam, Mahesan Naidu Water—Purification—Photocatalysis Water—Purification—Color removal Photocatalysis Thesis (PhD.) Large amount of wastewater is produced during the processing of palm oil. The final form of effluent is aerobically-treated palm oil mill effluent (AT-POME), an odourless and oil-free brown solution. The brown pigments found in AT-POME pose high risk to eutrophication and water contamination if they are released into natural water bodies without further treatment. Current treatment methods to remove colour pigments such as nanofiltration face membrane fouling due to pore blockage. Therefore, a more efficient method to remove pigments from AT-POME has to be developed. Hence, this study focused on the fabrication of a photocatalytic dual layer ultrafiltration hollow fiber membrane for colour removal from AT-POME. Novel boron doped titania nanotubes (TNT-B) photocatalyst was incorporated on the outer layer of a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) dual layer hollow fiber membrane (DLHFM). The molarity of boron doped into TNT was manipulated between the 0.25 M (TNT-B0.25), 0.5 M (TNT-B0.5) and 1.0 M (TNT-B1.0). TNT-B was prepared via a two-step hydrothermal method. The physicochemical properties of prepared TNT-B were characterized. The prepared photocatalyst were also tested for their photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation for the photodegradation of lignin and tannic acid (TA), which are the two important constituents of AT-POME. TNT-B0.5 exhibited the best photocatalytic activity, where it was able to degrade lignin and TA up to 96.47% and 96.91%, respectively. High surface area (159.552 m2/g) and visible light absorption have contributed to remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity. TNT-B0.5 was then used as the photocatalyst to prepare PVDF DLHFM at a loading of 1 wt% the outer layer of membrane. The membranes were spun using a triple orifice spinneret, while three important spinning parameters, i.e. bore fluid flow rate (BFFR), outer dope solution flow rate (OLFR), air gap (AG) were manipulated to study the effect of these parameters on membrane characteristics and filtration performance. All membranes were analysed to understand their morphology and physicochemical properties. It was deduced that a BFFR of 3 ml/min, OLFR of 3 ml/min and AG of 10 cm were the optimum spinning conditions to prepare DLHFM with high flux and high rejection. The optimised membrane was then loaded with different photocatalyst loadings (1 wt%, 2 wt%, 3 wt%) on the outer layer. Then, the effect of different loading towards dynamic photocatalytic filtration and antifouling properties using synthetic AT-POME as model pollutant in a submerged membrane photo reactor (SMPR) was evaluated. With 2 wt% TNT-B0.5, the optimised DLHFM exhibited the highest flux of 51.29 L/m2h and rejection of 79.42% when tested with synthetic AT-POME. The membrane also exhibited superior antifouling properties in which the flux was recovered by 95% after four filtration cycles of synthetic AT-POME. The optimised membrane was then used to treat real AT-POME for 20 days. The results showed that an increase in both flux and rejection over treatment time which was due to the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and membrane filtration. Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering 2023-09-21T03:23:53Z 2023-09-21T03:23:53Z 2022 Thesis Dataset http://openscience.utm.my/handle/123456789/752 en application/pdf application/pdf Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
spellingShingle Water—Purification—Photocatalysis
Water—Purification—Color removal
Photocatalysis
Subramaniam, Mahesan Naidu
Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
title Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
title_full Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
title_fullStr Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
title_full_unstemmed Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
title_short Photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
title_sort photocatalytic dual layer hollow fiber membrane for colour pigment degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent
topic Water—Purification—Photocatalysis
Water—Purification—Color removal
Photocatalysis
url http://openscience.utm.my/handle/123456789/752
work_keys_str_mv AT subramaniammahesannaidu photocatalyticduallayerhollowfibermembraneforcolourpigmentdegradationofaerobicallytreatedpalmoilmilleffluent