Progress in membrane distillation processes for dye wastewater treatment: A review.

Textile and cosmetic industries generate large amounts of dye effluents requiring treatment before discharge. This wastewater contains high levels of reactive dyes, low to none-biodegradable materials and chemical residues. Technically, dye wastewater is characterised by high chemical and biological oxygen demand. Biological, physical and pressure-driven membrane processes have been extensively used in textile wastewater treatment plants. However, these technologies are characterised by process complexity and are often costly. Also, process efficiency is not achieved in cost-effective biochemical and physical treatment processes. Membrane distillation (MD) emerged as a promising technology harnessing challenges faced by pressure-driven membrane processes. To ensure high cost-effectiveness, the MD can be operated by solar energy or low-grade waste heat. Herein, the MD purification of dye wastewater is comprehensively and yet concisely discussed. This involved research advancement in MD processes towards removal of dyes from industrial effluents. Also, challenges faced by this process with a specific focus on fouling are reviewed. Current literature mainly tested MD setups in the laboratory scale suggesting a deep need of further optimization of membrane and module designs in near future, especially for textile wastewater treatment. There is a need to deliver customized high-porosity hydrophobic membrane design with the appropriate thickness and module configuration to reduce concentration and temperature polarization (CP and TP). Also, energy loss should be minimized while increasing dye rejection and permeate flux. Although laboratory experiments remain pivotal in optimizing the MD process for treating dye wastewater, the nature of their time intensity poses a challenge. Given the multitude of parameters involved in MD process optimization, artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies present a promising avenue for assistance. Thus, AI-driven algorithms have the potential to enhance overall process efficiency, cutting down on time, fine-tuning parameters, and driving cost reductions. However, achieving an optimal balance between efficiency enhancements and financial outlays is a complex process. Finally, this paper suggests a research direction for the development of effective synthetic and natural dye removal from industrially discharged wastewater.

Self-Healing Sulfonated Poly(ether ether ketone)-Based Polymer Electrolyte Membrane for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells: Effect of Solvent Content.

Proton exchange membranes (PEMs) with superior characteristics are needed to advance fuel cell technology. Nafion, the most used PEM in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), has excellent proton conductivity but suffers from high methanol permeability and long-term performance degradation. Thus, this study aimed to create a healable PEM with improved durability and methanol barrier properties by combining sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) and poly-vinyl alcohol (PVA). The effect of changing the N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solvent concentration during membrane casting was investigated. Lower DMAc concentrations improved water absorption and, thus, membrane proton conductivity, but methanol permeability increased correspondingly. For the best trade-off between these two characteristics, the blend membrane with a 10 wt% DMAc solvent (SP10) exhibited the highest selectivity. SP10 also showed a remarkable self-healing capacity by regaining 88% of its pre-damage methanol-blocking efficiency. The ability to self-heal decreased with the increasing solvent concentration because of the increased crosslinking density and structure compactness, which reduced chain mobility. Optimizing the solvent concentration during membrane preparation is therefore an important factor in improving membrane performance in DMFCs. With its exceptional methanol barrier and self-healing characteristics, the pioneering SPEEK/PVA blend membrane may contribute to efficient and durable fuel cell systems.

A State-of-Art on the Development of Nafion-Based Membrane for Performance Improvement in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells.

Nafion, a perfluorosulfonic acid proton exchange membrane (PEM), has been widely used in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) to serve as a proton carrier, methanol barrier, and separator for the anode and cathode. A significant drawback of Nafion in DMFC applications is the high anode-to-cathode methanol fuel permeability that results in over 40% fuel waste. Therefore, the development of a new membrane with lower permeability while retaining the high proton conductivity and other inherent properties of Nafion is greatly desired. In light of these considerations, this paper discusses the research findings on developing Nafion-based membranes for DMFC. Several aspects of the DMFC membrane are also presented, including functional requirements, transport mechanisms, and preparation strategies. More importantly, the effect of the various modification approaches on the performance of the Nafion membrane is highlighted. These include the incorporation of inorganic fillers, carbon nanomaterials, ionic liquids, polymers, or other techniques. The feasibility of these membranes for DMFC applications is discussed critically in terms of transport phenomena-related characteristics such as proton conductivity and methanol permeability. Moreover, the current challenges and future prospects of Nafion-based membranes for DMFC are presented. This paper will serve as a resource for the DMFC research community, with the goal of improving the cost-effectiveness and performance of DMFC membranes.

Altering substrate properties of thin film nanocomposite membrane by Al2O3 nanoparticles for engineered osmosis process.

The scarcity of energy and water resources is a major challenge for humanity in the twenty-first century. Engineered osmosis (EO) technologies are extensively researched as a means of producing sustainable water and energy. This study focuses on the modification of substrate properties of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane using aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles and further evaluates the performance of resultant membranes for EO process. Different Al2O3 loading ranging from zero to 0.10 wt% was incorporated into the substrate and the results showed that the hydrophilicity of substrate was increased with contact angle reduced from 74.81° to 66.17° upon the Al2O3 incorporation. Furthermore, the addition of Al2O3 resulted in the formation of larger porous structure on the bottom part of substrate which reduced water transport resistance. Using the substrate modified by 0.02 wt% Al2O3, we could produce the TFN membrane that exhibited the highest water permeability (1.32 L/m2.h.bar, DI water as a feed solution at 15 bar), decent salt rejection (96.89%), low structural parameter (532.44 µm) and relatively good pressure withstandability (>25 bar).

Preparation, Characterization, and Performance Evaluation of Polysulfone Hollow Fiber Membrane with PEBAX or PDMS Coating for Oxygen Enhancement Process.

Air pollution is a widely discussed topic amongst the academic and industrial spheres as it can bring adverse effects to human health and economic loss. As humans spend most of their time at the office and at home, good indoor air quality with enriched oxygen concentration is particularly important. In this study, polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membranes fabricated by dry-jet wet phase inversion method were coated by a layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or poly(ether block amide) (PEBAX) at different concentrations and used to evaluate their performance in gas separation for oxygen enrichment. The surface-coated membranes were characterized using SEM and EDX to determine the coating layer thickness and surface chemical properties, respectively. Results from the gas permeation study revealed that the PSF membrane coated with PDMS offered higher permeance and selectivity compared to the membrane coated with PEBAX. The best performing PDMS-coated membrane demonstrated oxygen and nitrogen gas permeance of 18.31 and 4.01 GPU, respectively with oxygen/nitrogen selectivity of 4.56. Meanwhile, the PEBAX-coated membrane only showed 12.23 and 3.11 GPU for oxygen and nitrogen gas, respectively with a selectivity of 3.94. It can be concluded the PDMS coating is more promising for PSF hollow fiber membrane compared to the PEBAX coating for the oxygen enrichment process.

Emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the liquid injection incineration of petrochemical industrial wastewater.

This study investigated the emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from stack flue gas and air pollution control device (APCD) effluent of the liquid injection incinerator (LII) disposing the petrochemical industrial wastewater, and PAH removal efficiencies of wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) and wet scrubber (WSB). The PAH carcinogenic potency were investigated with the benzo(a)pyrene equivalent concentration (BaP(eq)). The remarkably high total-BaP(eq) concentration (220 microgNm(-3)) in the stack flue gas was much higher than those of several published emission sources, and indicated the possible influence on its surrounding environment. The total-PAH emission factors of the WESP, WSB and stack flue gas were 78.9, 95.7 and 30,900 microgL(-1) wastewater, respectively. The removal efficiencies of total-PAHs were 0.254, 0.309 and 0.563% for WESP, WSB and overall, respectively, suggesting that the use of both WESP and WSB shows insignificant PAH removal efficiencies, and 99.4% of total-PAHs was directly emitted to the ambient air through the stack flue gas. This finding suggested that the better incineration efficiencies, and APCD removal efficiencies for disposing the petrochemical industrial wastewater are necessary in future.

Profiles of PAH emission from steel and iron industries.

In order to characterize the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emission from steel and iron industries, this study measured the stack emission of twelve steel and iron plants in southern Taiwan to construct a set of source fingerprints. The study sampled the emissions by the USEPA's sampling method 5 with the modification of Graseby for the gas and particulate phase PAH and, then, used Hewlett-Packard 5890 gas chromatograph equipped with mass spectrometer detector to analyze the samples. The steel and iron industries are classified into three categories on the basis of auxiliary energy source: Category I uses coal as fuel, Category II uses heavy oil as fuel and Category III uses electric arc furnace. The pollution source profiles are obtained by averaging the ratios of individual PAH concentrations to the total concentration of 21 PAHs and total particulate matter measured in this study. Results of the study show that low molecular weight PAHs are predominant in gas plus particulate phase for all three categories. For particulate phase PAHs, however, the contribution of large molecular weight compounds increases. Two-ring PAHs account for the majority of the mass, varying from 84% to 92% with an average of 89%. The mass fractions of 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-ring PAHs in Category I are found to be more than those of the other two categories. The mass of Category III is dominated by 7-ring PAHs. Large (or heavy) molecular weight PAHs (HMW PAHs) are carcinogenic. Over all categories, these compounds are less than 1% of the total-PAH mass on the average. The indicatory PAHs are benz[a]anthracene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[ghi]perylene for Category I, benzo[a]pyrene, acenaphthene, acenaphthylene for Category II and coronene, pyrene, benzo[b]chrycene for Category III. The indicatory PAHs among categories are very different. Thus, dividing steel and iron industry into categories by auxiliary fuel is to increase the precision of estimation by a receptor model. Average total-PAH emission factors for coal, heavy oil and electric arc furnace were 4050 microg/kg-coal, 5750 microg/l-oil, 2620 microg/kW h, respectively. Carcinogenic benzo[a]pyrene for gas plus particulate phase was 2.0 g/kg-coal, 2.4 microg/l-oil and 1.4 microg/kW h for Category I, II and III, respectively.

Characterization of PAHs in the atmosphere of carbon black manufacturing workplaces.

The objective of this study was set out to characterize the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content in the atmosphere of an oil furnace carbon black manufacturing plant located in southern Taiwan. A standard semi-volatile sampling train, the PS-1 sampler, was used to collect samples from eight areas, including the feedstock oil unloading, furnace, filtering/micro-pulverization, pelletizing, packaging, office/outside, office/inside, and boundary area, respectively. For each area, side-by-side static samples were collected simultaneously and a total of 16 samples were obtained. For each collected sample, the adsorbent-retained PAH content and the filter-retained PAH content were used directly to determine the concentrations of gaseous-phase PAHs and particle-bound PAHs, respectively. The gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) technique was used for PAH analyses, and a total of 21 PAH species were determined. Results show the gaseous-phase PAHs accounted for only 69.2% of the total PAH content for samples collected from the packaging area, which was significantly lower than those samples collected from the rest of seven areas (ranging from 96.3 to 99.7%). The result is not so surprising since the packaging area had the highest dust concentration due to the releasing of carbon black dusts during the packaging process. In this study, we further examine the contribution of gaseous-phase PAHs to the total benzo[a]pyrene equivalent (BaP(eq)) content from the health-risk assessment view of point. It can be found the contribution of gaseous-phase PAHs to the total BaP(eq) content (63.1%) was quite comparable to the corresponding contribution to the total PAH content for samples collected from the packaging area. However, a different trend can be found for samples collected from the other seven areas, where the contributions of gaseous-phase PAHs to the total BaP(eq) content (ranging from 67.7 to 93.4%) were lower than the corresponding contributions to the total PAH content. The above results can be explained by PAH homologues that contained in both gaseous-phase and particle-bound PAHs. It was found the gaseous-phase PAHs contained higher fractions of less carcinogenic low molecular weight PAH homologues, whereas particle-bound PAHs contained higher fractions of more carcinogenic high molecular weight PAH homologues. Considering the contributions of gaseous-phase PAHs to both total PAH content and total BaP(eq) content were well above 50% for the eight studied areas, it is concluded that both particle-bound and gaseous-phase PAHs should be included for assessing the exposures of carbon black workers.

An evaluation of direct measurement techniques for mercury dry deposition.

In this project, several surrogate surfaces designed to directly measure Hg dry deposition were investigated. Static water surrogate surfaces (SWSS) containing deionized (DI), acidified water, or salt solutions, and a knife-edge surrogate surface (KSS) using quartz fiber filters (QFF), KCl-coated QFF and gold-coated QFF were evaluated as a means to directly measure mercury (Hg) dry deposition. The SWSS was hypothesized to collect deposited elemental mercury (Hg°), reactive gaseous/oxidized mercury (RGM), and mercury associated with particulate matter (Hg(p)) while the QFF, KCl-coated QFF, and gold-coated QFF on the KSS were hypothesized to collect Hg(p), RGM+Hg(p), and Hg°+RGM+Hg(p), respectively. The Hg flux measured by the DI water was significantly smaller than that captured by the acidified water, probably because Hg° was oxidized to Hg²+ which stabilized the deposited Hg and decreased mass transfer resistance. Acidified BrCl, which efficiently oxidizes Hg°, captured significantly more Hg than other solutions. However, of all collection media, gold-coated QFFs captured 6 to 100 times greater Hg mass than the other surfaces, probably because there is no surface resistance for Hg° deposition to gold surfaces. In addition, the Hg° concentration is usually 100-1000 times higher than RGM and Hg(p). For all other media, co-located samples were not significantly different, and the combination of daytime plus nighttime results were comparable to 24-h samples, implying that Hg°, RGM and Hg(p) were not released after they deposited nor did the surfaces reach equilibrium with the atmosphere. Based on measured Hg ambient air concentrations and fluxes, dry deposition velocities of RGM and Hg° to DI water and other surfaces were 5.6±5.4 and 0.005-0.68 cm s⁻¹ in this study, respectively. These results suggest surrogate surfaces can be used to measure Hg dry deposition; however, extrapolating the results to natural surface can be challenging.

Emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from fluidized and fixed bed incinerators disposing petrochemical industrial biological sludge.

This study investigated the emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from two fluidized bed incinerators (FLBI_A and FLBI_B) and one fixed bed incinerator (FIBI) disposing biological sludge generated from the petrochemical industries in Taiwan. The results of 21 individual PAHs (including low (LM-PAHs), middle (MM-PAHs) and high molecular weight PAHs (HM-PAHs)) were reported. The LM-PAHs mainly dominated the total-PAHs in the stack flue gases, whereas the LM- and HM-PAHs dominated the total-PAHs in the bottom fly, fly ash and WSB effluent. Due to high carcinogenic potencies (=total-BaP(eq) concentrations) in the bottom ash (195 ng g(-1)) and WSB effluent (20,600 ng L(-1)) of the FIBI, cautious should be taken in treating them to avoid second contamination. Lower combustion efficiency and elevated fuel/feedstock (F/W) ratio for the FIBI led to the highest total emission factor of total-PAHs (38,400 microg kg(-1)). Lower total-PAH removal efficiencies of wet scrubber (WSB) (0.837-5.89%), cyclone (0.109-0.255%) and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) (0.032%) than those reported elsewhere resulted in high fraction in PAH contributions from the stack flue gases. Lower total-PAH emission factor was found for FLBI_A (2380 microg kg(-1) biological sludge) with higher combustion efficiency compared to those for FLBI_B (11,500 microg kg(-1)) and FIBI (38,400 microg kg(-1) biological sludge), implying that combustion efficiency plays a vital role in PAH emissions.