Aminated polyethersulfone-silver nanoparticles (AgNPs-APES) composite membranes with controlled silver ion release for antibacterial and water treatment applications.

The present study reports the antibacterial disinfection properties of a series of silver nanoparticle (AgNP) immobilized membranes. Initially, polyethersulfone (PES) was functionalized through the introduction of amino groups to form aminated polyethersulfone (NH2-PES, APES). AgNPs were then coordinately immobilized on the surface of the APES composite membrane to form AgNPs-APES. The properties of the obtained membrane were examined by FT-IR, XPS, XRD, TGA, ICP-OES and SEM-EDAX analyses. These structural characterizations revealed that AgNPs ranging from 5 to 40 nm were immobilized on the surface of the polymer membrane. Antibacterial tests of the samples showed that the AgNPs-APES exhibited higher activity than the AgNPs-PES un-functionalized membrane. Generally, the AgNPs-APES 1 cm × 3 cm strip revealed a four times longer life than the un-functionalized AgNPs polymer membranes. The evaluation of the Ag(+) leaching properties of the obtained samples indicated that approximately 30% of the AgNPs could be retained, even after 12 days of operation. Further analysis indicated that silver ion release can be sustained for approximately 25 days. The present study provides a systematic and novel approach to synthesize water treatment membranes with controlled and improved silver (Ag(+)) release to enhance the lifetime of the membranes.

Influence of operating parameters on cake formation in pilot scale pulse-jet bag filter.

Bag filters are commonly used for fine particles removal in off-gas purification. There dust laden gas pervades through permeable filter media starting at a lower pressure drop limit leaving dust (called filter cake) on the filter media. The filter cakeformation is influenced by many factors including filtration velocity, dust concentration, pressure drop limits, and filter media resistance. Effect of the stated parameters is investigated experimentally in a pilot scale pulse-jet bag filter test facility where lime stone dust is separated from air at ambient conditions. Results reveal that filtration velocity significantly affects filter pressure drop as well as cake properties; cake density and specific cake resistance. Cake density is slightly affected by dust concentration. Specific resistance of filter cake increases with velocity, slightly affected by dust concentration, changes inversely with the upper pressure drop limit and decreases over a prolonged use (aging). Specific resistance of filter media is independent of upper pressure drop limit and increases linearly over a prolonged use.

The effect of operating conditions on resistance parameters of filter media and limestone dust cake for uniformly loaded needle felts in a pilot scale test facility at ambient conditions.

Resistance parameters are essential for the prediction of pressure drop in bag filters. The reported values for limestone dust differ in magnitude and also depend on operating parameters. In this work, experimental data is provided from a pilot scale pulse-jet regenerated bag filter test facility for three types of needle felts using air and limestone dust at ambient conditions. Results reveal that specific resistance of filter media is independent of velocity while the specific resistance of filter cake increases linearly with filtration velocity. Residual pressure drop is almost constant, independent of upper pressure drop limit. The cake resistance at constant velocity fits to a second degree polynomial whereas it increases linearly with the velocity. A linear relation is reported here for all the cases. The resistance of filter cake decreases at higher upper pressure drop limit.

Experimental study of cake formation on heat treated and membrane coated needle felts in a pilot scale pulse jet bag filter using optical in-situ cake height measurement.

Pulse-jet bag filters are frequently employed for particle removal from off gases. Separated solids form a layer on the permeable filter media called filter cake. The cake is responsible for increasing pressure drop. Therefore, the cake has to be detached at a predefined upper pressure drop limit or at predefined time intervals. Thus the process is intrinsically semi-continuous. The cake formation and cake detachment are interdependent and may influence the performance of the filter. Therefore, understanding formation and detachment of filter cake is important. In this regard, the filter media is the key component in the system. Needle felts are the most commonly used media in bag filters. Cake formation studies with heat treated and membrane coated needle felts in pilot scale pulse jet bag filter were carried out. The data is processed according to the procedures that were published already [Powder Technology, Volume 173, Issue 2, 19 April 2007, Pages 93-106]. Pressure drop evolution, cake height distribution evolution, cake patches area distribution and their characterization using fractal analysis on different needle felts are presented here. It is observed that concavity of pressure drop curve for membrane coated needle felt is principally caused by presence of inhomogeneous cake area load whereas it is inherent for heat treated media. Presence of residual cake enhances the concavity of pressure drop at the start of filtration cycle. Patchy cleaning is observed only when jet pulse pressure is too low and unable to provide the necessary force to detach the cake. The border line is very sharp. Based on experiments with limestone dust and three types of needle felts, for the jet pulse pressure above 4 bar and filtration velocity below 50 mm/s, cake is detached completely except a thin residual layer (100-200 µm). Uniformity and smoothness of residual cake depends on the surface characteristics of the filter media. Cake height distribution of residual cake and newly formed cake during filtration prevails. The patch size analysis and fractal analysis reveal that residual cake grow in size (latterly) following regeneration initially on the base with edges smearing out, however, the cake heights are not leveled off. Fractal dimension of cake patches boundary falls in the range of 1-1.4 and depends on vertical position as well as time of filtration. Cake height measurements with Polyimide (PI) needle felts were hampered on account of its photosensitive nature.