Enhanced performance of carbon nanotube immobilized membrane for the treatment of high salinity produced water via direct contact membrane distillation

Madihah Saud Humoud, Sagar Roy, Somenath Mitra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising desalination technology for the treatment of high salinity water. Here, we investigated the fouling characteristics of produced water obtained from hydraulic fracturing by implementing a carbon nanotube immobilized membrane (CNIM) via direct contact membrane distillation. The CNIM exhibited enhanced water vapor flux and antifouling characteristics compared to the pristine membrane. The normalized flux decline with the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane after 7 h of operation was found to be 18.2% more than the CNIM. The addition of 1-Hydroxy Ethylidene-1, 1-Diphosphonic acid (HEDP) antiscalant was found to be effective in reducing the membrane fouling. The salt deposition on the membrane surface was 77% less in the CNIM, which was further reduced with the addition of HEDP in the feed by up to 135.4% in comparison with the PTFE membrane. The presence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the membrane surface also facilitated the regenerability of the membrane. The results indicated that the CNIM regained 90.9% of its initial water flux after washing, whereas the unmodified PTFE only regained 81.1% of its initial flux after five days of operation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number325
Pages (from-to)1-16
Number of pages16
JournalMembranes
Volume10
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous)
  • Process Chemistry and Technology
  • Filtration and Separation

Keywords

  • Antiscalants
  • Carbon nanotube
  • Desalination
  • Membrane distillation
  • Membrane fouling
  • Produced water

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