Adsorptive removal and oxidation of organic pollutants from water using a novel membrane

To develop an effective method to remove and mineralize trace organic pollutants, a series of composite functional membranes containing immobilized ACF (activated carbon fibre) powder (<300 mesh) and Ce3+-TiO2, a combination of adsorbent and photo-catalyst on terylene (PET) filter cloth, was prepared by using a sol–gel and dip coating method. As high as 93% BPA (bisphenol A) pollutant can be separated successfully by adsorption onto the membrane in a series of batch adsorption tests, 40% removal was achieved in dynamic filtration/adsorption test, which also removed 98% koalinite suspended solids at the same time. The measured adsorption of BPA corresponds to 37.0, 70.6 and 62.2 mg (BPA)/g(ACF) for three membranes A, B and C, where the weight ratio of ACF to ACF + TiO2 was 29.9%, 17.6% and 11.3% respectively in batch adsorption tests (50 ml solution) and 25.48 mg (BPA)/g(ACF) for membrane A after 2 h adsorption in 200 ml solution. After dynamic filtration, the total adsorption capacity was 81.0 mg (BPA)/g(ACF) for membrane A. It is noteworthy that membrane adsorption can be regenerated by UV/Fenton treatment. Order of BPA adsorption quantity is 1st > 2nd > 3rd time use for membrane C, due to loss of ACF resulted from the supersonic treatment before oxidative regeneration. Introducing TEOS in the preparation of sol–gel solution and subsequent coating to form composite membrane, improved membrane adsorption stability in UV/Fenton regeneration treatment.