Preparation and Characterisation of PPEES-TiO2 Composite Micro- porous UF Membrane for Oily Water Treatment

A composite UF membrane was prepared in the present work. The membrane was made up of Poly (1, 4-phenylene ether ether sulfone) (PPEES) and TiO2 nano-sized particles. The PVP was used as a pore former in the blending solution. The presence of nano-sized TiO2 particles increases the hydrophilicity of the prepared membrane and improves its antifouling property. The surface morphology was studied using SEM images. The mechanical strength and water uptake capacity was studied before application of membrane in effluent treatment. The oily water was prepared at lab scale to test the epicacy of the prepared membrane. The result of water flux and permeate flux was obtained at constant velocity and trans-membrane pressure of 2m/s and 0.2 MPa respectively. The experimental results obtained in the present work indicates that without any chemical treatment and direct additives addition the refinery effluent can be cleaned up to the environmentally accepted level. The possible improvement in the hydrophilicity as well as antifouling characteristics of PPEES-TiO2 composite membrane was quite better. The flux declines were due to the contaminant layer formation on the membrane surface.