Investigating the Effects of Different Parameters on Membrane Performance and Efficiency of Immersion Membrane photoreactor Process

In this research, ability of a membrane photoreactor, in which the membrane was submerged in a photocatalyst suspension solution, was investigated for decolorization of a colored wastewater. Polymer membrane and photocatalyst used for this purpose were PVDF and TiO2 nanoparticles, respectively. The project consisted of four sections: in the first part of the PVDF membrane consist of the TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared using different percentages of polymer and nanoparticles. In the second step, UV/TiO2/PVDF process was used for Rhodium D (RhB) dye degradation. In this research, the function of a membrane photoreactor was investigated for decolorization of the colored wastewater, inwhich the membrane was submerged in a photocatalyst suspension. In order to determine the optimal test conditions,the experiments were carried out based on the membrane photocatalytic concentration, membrane polymerconcentration, aeration amount, temperature and pH factors at the constant pressure of 0.4 bar. By applying the optimalconditions for polymer concentration of 18%, TiOR2R concentration of 10%, temperature of 40 °C, pH amount of 5 andaeration rate of 1.6 L/min in the continuous reactor after 320 minutes, the RhB dye removal of 70% was obtained andremained stable in the system for a long time. In the third section, the effect of pressure changes on the membrane wasinvestigated. At this stage, the optimal conditions were applied and the experiments were carried out at the differentpressures of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 bar. The removal rate of RhB dye was increased to 90% by decreasing the pressure andpassing flux through the membrane. Here, the optimum pressure of 0.2 bar was choose according to the three factors ofpassing flux through the membrane, membrane fouling and RhB dye removal rate of 88.7%. In the final stage, theoptimal pressure and conditions obtained from the second and third stages were applied and the actual waste of theEshtehard Industrial Park Wastewater refinery was treated, and the pollutant removal of 60% was resulted.

Keywords:

Photocatalyst , slury photocatalytic membrane reactor , PVDF membrane , Response Surface Methodology