Preparation and Characterization of PVDF-TiO2 Composite Membranes Blended with Different Mw of PVP for Oily Wastewater Treatment using Submerged Membrane System

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber ultrafiltration (UF) membranes consisted of TiO2 and different molecular weight (Mw) of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) (i.e. 10, 24, 40 and 360 kDa) were prepared to treat synthesized oily wastewater. The membrane performances were characterized in terms of pure water flux, permeate flux and oil rejection while the membrane morphological properties were studied using SEM and AFM. PVDF-TiO2 composite membrane prepared from PVP40k was found as the optimum membrane due to its high flux and high rejection during filtration process, recording 45 L/m2.h and 80% respectively, when tested using 250 ppm oily solution under submerged condition. The experimental results demonstrated that with increasing Mw of PVP, PVDF-TiO2 membrane had higher protein rejection, smaller porosity and smoother surface layer. With increasing oil concentration from 250 to 1000 ppm, the permeate flux of the PVDF-PVP40k was obviously decreased while the oil rejection was gradually increased due to the additional selective layer formed on the membrane surface. Based on the findings, the PVDF-TiO2 membrane with PVP40k can be considered as a potential membrane for oily wastewater industry due to the high permeate flux and oil rejection.