Fouling-resistant Composite Membranes for Separation of Oil-in-water Microemulsions1

Fouling-resistant ceramic-supported polymer composite membranes were developed for removal of oil-in-water (O/W) microemulsions. The composite membranes were featured with an asymmetric three-layer structure, i.e., a porous ceramic membrane substrate, a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration sub-layer, and a polyamide/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite thin top-layer. The PVDF polymer was cast onto the tubular porous ceramic membranes with an immersion precipitation method, and the polyamide/PVA composite thin top-layer was fabricated with an interfacial polymerization method. The effects of the sub-layer composition and the recipe in the interfacial polymerization for fabricating the top-layer on the structure and performance of composite membranes were systematically investigated. The prepared composite membranes showed a good performance for treating the O/W microemulsions with a mean diameter of about 2.4μm. At the operating pressure of 0.4MPa, the hydraulic permeability remained steadily about 190L·m−2·h−1, the oil concentration in the permeate was less than 1.6mg·L−1, and the oil rejection coefficient was always higher than 98.5% throughout the operation from the beginning.