Biowaste Derived Activated Carbon Membrane in Ultrafiltration and Membrane Distillation

Abstract

Increasing global concern about heavy metal contamination in wastewater necessitates the development of efficient and sustainable treatment technologies. Furthermore, effective management of biomass waste is critical to curbing pollution, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and promoting sustainable resource utilization. In this study, activated carbon derived from biowaste was synthesized and incorporated into a polyethersulfone (PES) based ultrafiltration membrane for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. Various locally available biowastes such as banana peels, date seeds, and orange peels were processed via pyrolysis under optimized operating conditions. The biochar was chemically activated using KOH as an activating agent. Subsequently, the resulting activated carbon (AC) was fused into a polymeric matrix to develop ultrafiltration (UF) membranes using the phase inversion technique. Characterization of the membranes evaluated the removal of various pollutants such as zinc, nickel, copper, and lead, which are heavy metals found in the United Arab Emirates’s industrial wastewater. The results showed that the PES membrane embedded with activated carbon derived from Banana peels (BP) had higher permeability (flux) and maximum rejection compared to the controlled membranes (PES only) and the membranes developed with activated carbon derived from orange peel (OP) and date seeds (DS). This could be due to the highly porous nature of BPAC. In addition, the nanocomposite membrane was functionalized using Layered double hydroxides (LDH) with 4 different concentrations (4, 8, 12, and 16%). These membranes exhibited superior performance in both heavy metal flux and rejection with 12%LDH-BPAC having the highest flux 354.6 LMH, and 91.7% rejection of Ni2+ ions. Moreover, a novel application of the biowaste-derived membrane in temperature sensing was explored to determine membrane temperatures crucial for calculating the Temperature Polarization Coefficient (TPC). The sensitivity coefficients for temperature were evaluated using conventional membrane distillation (MD) for the DSAC membrane, which exhibited the highest stability, providing an innovative approach for enhancing MD performance and efficiency.

Date of Award	8 May 2024
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Al Marzooqi (Supervisor)