Preparation of N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan/cellulose acetate blend nanofiltration membrane and testing its performance in treating industrial wastewater

An N,O carboxymethyl chitosan (NOCC)/cellulose acetate (CA) blend nanofiltration (NF) membrane was prepared in acetone solvent. From our previous work on miscibility experiments, it was proposed to take 0.4 wt% of NOCC in NOCC/CA blend membrane preparation. The newly prepared blend membrane was characterized with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and mechanical properties of membrane. Molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of newly prepared blend membrane was found to be 710 Da, which was in the range of nanofiltration. The performance of the prepared NF membrane had been tested to separate chromium and copper from a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) wastewater at different operating conditions. The highest rejection for chromium and copper were observed to be 83.40 and 72.60%, respectively, at 1 MPa applied pressure and 16 L/min (LPM) feed flow rate.