Coconut husk ash and polyethersulfone mixed matrix membrane analysis for textile wastewater and humic acid filtration process

Abstract

The increasingly pressing global water scarcity is being further burdened by industrialisation through the discharge of textile industrial effluents and natural substances like humic acid that complicate the water treatment process and threaten human wellbeing. Filtration using a polyethersulfone (PES) membrane is one of the ways to solve this issue but is usually hindered due to its hydrophobicity. The hydrophobic property would lead to membrane fouling and filtration system inefficiency but can be improved through the addition of hydrophilic materials. Coconut husk ash (CHA) that was prepared contains various hydrophilic oxide minerals upon x-ray fluorescence analysis and was blended with the dope solution during the membrane fabrication process. The CHA-added mixed matrix membranes exhibited some alterations in the surface functional group, surface zeta potential, and porosity while showing improvement in hydrophilicity, tensile strength, pure water flux, and antifouling properties. Furthermore, the filtration results also show improvement in the aspect of malachite green and humic acid filtration performance, especially at 0.25% and 0.50% CHA contents. In conclusion, CHA as an additive to PES membrane is a promising endeavour that can be applied further beyond the laboratory and into real-life applications for the treatment of industrial wastewater and naturally sourced water.