TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of dominant salts on the removal of trace micropollutants by hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes
AU - Rutten, Sam B.
AU - Junker, Moritz A.
AU - Leal, Lucía Hernández
AU - de Vos, Wiebe M.
AU - Lammertink, Rob G.H.
AU - de Grooth, Joris
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology ( www.wetsus.nl ). Wetsus is co-funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, the European Union Regional Development Fund, the Province of Fryslân and the Northern Netherlands Provinces. Furthermore, this project was made possible through financial support of Oasen (Gouda, The Netherlands) , NX Filtration (Enschede, The Netherlands) , and the TKI HTSM, The Netherlands , through the University of Twente connecting industry program. The authors thank the participants of the research theme “Advanced Water Treatment” for fruitful discussions and financial support. Lastly, the authors would like to thank Mieke Kersaan-Haan for developing and performing the LC-MS/MS measurements.
Funding Information:
This work was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology (www.wetsus.nl). Wetsus is co-funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, the European Union Regional Development Fund, the Province of Fryslân and the Northern Netherlands Provinces. Furthermore, this project was made possible through financial support of Oasen (Gouda, The Netherlands), NX Filtration (Enschede, The Netherlands), and the TKI HTSM, The Netherlands, through the University of Twente connecting industry program. The authors thank the participants of the research theme “Advanced Water Treatment” for fruitful discussions and financial support. Lastly, the authors would like to thank Mieke Kersaan-Haan for developing and performing the LC-MS/MS measurements.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/7/15
Y1 - 2023/7/15
N2 - Nanofiltration (NF) is seen as a promising advanced treatment technology to deal with the increasing concentration of micropollutants (MPs) in water sources globally. To further improve the successful implementation of NF, an increased understanding of membrane transport mechanisms is important. One key aspect among these mechanisms concerns the influence of solution composition on the overall filtration performance. Although several studies report the influence of feed solution composition on the removal of micropollutants by NF membranes, the underlying mechanisms are often not fully understood. In this study, the impact of dominant salts (NaCl, Na2SO4, MgCl2) on the removal of trace MPs by commercial hollow fiber NF membranes (dNF40, dNF80) was investigated. Common conditions where salt concentrations greatly exceed MP concentrations were applied to assess their potential influence at environmentally relevant concentrations. Experimental observations reveal that a dominant salt alters MP transport behaviour substantially. The impact of a dominant salt on MP transport via electrostatic coupling increases for MPs of higher mobility inside the membrane. Overall, higher mobility, i.e. lower removal, of MPs through the dNF80 membranes was observed. Correspondingly, the strongest impact was observed for the dNF80 membrane, where the removal of positively charged atenolol increased from about 60% to >90% in the presence of Na2SO4. A theoretical transport model (DSPM&DE) was used to assist the interpretation of experimental observations further. Model predictions reveal the relevance of two effects: the influence of a dominant salt on the charge-based membrane properties and the electrostatic coupling in the form of the arising membrane potential.
AB - Nanofiltration (NF) is seen as a promising advanced treatment technology to deal with the increasing concentration of micropollutants (MPs) in water sources globally. To further improve the successful implementation of NF, an increased understanding of membrane transport mechanisms is important. One key aspect among these mechanisms concerns the influence of solution composition on the overall filtration performance. Although several studies report the influence of feed solution composition on the removal of micropollutants by NF membranes, the underlying mechanisms are often not fully understood. In this study, the impact of dominant salts (NaCl, Na2SO4, MgCl2) on the removal of trace MPs by commercial hollow fiber NF membranes (dNF40, dNF80) was investigated. Common conditions where salt concentrations greatly exceed MP concentrations were applied to assess their potential influence at environmentally relevant concentrations. Experimental observations reveal that a dominant salt alters MP transport behaviour substantially. The impact of a dominant salt on MP transport via electrostatic coupling increases for MPs of higher mobility inside the membrane. Overall, higher mobility, i.e. lower removal, of MPs through the dNF80 membranes was observed. Correspondingly, the strongest impact was observed for the dNF80 membrane, where the removal of positively charged atenolol increased from about 60% to >90% in the presence of Na2SO4. A theoretical transport model (DSPM&DE) was used to assist the interpretation of experimental observations further. Model predictions reveal the relevance of two effects: the influence of a dominant salt on the charge-based membrane properties and the electrostatic coupling in the form of the arising membrane potential.
KW - Hollow Fiber
KW - Ion matrix
KW - Micropollutants
KW - Nanofiltration
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85152255708
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2023.121625
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2023.121625
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85152255708
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 678
JO - Journal of membrane science
JF - Journal of membrane science
M1 - 121625
ER -