Desalination of seawater using newly fabricated nanofiltration flat sheet membrane; [Penyahgaraman air laut menggunakan rekaan baru membran kepingan rata penapisan nano]

• Published in: Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences
• Main Author: Chik W.S.W.; Ibrahim M.J.M.; Tajuddin R.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences 2018
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85043326605&doi=10.17576%2fmjas-2018-2201-17&partnerID=40&md5=41514a9350d15dd352388c7ce8fbe3c5

Desalination is one of the technologies to produce clean water for drinking, irrigation, industrial and development. Generally desalination can be classified based on their separation mechanisms which are thermal and membrane based desalination. In this study the newly fabricated nanofiltration membrane was used to identify their performance in desalination process. The material chosen in this study is polysulfone (PSf), N-methyl-2-pyrolidon (NMP) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The dope solution composition was determined by using titration method. The membrane compositions are 20:1:79, 20:2:78, 20:3:77 and 20:4:76 (weight ratio) for PSf/PVP-1%, PSf/PVP-2%, PSf/PVP-3% and PSf/PVP-4% respectively. The polysulfone membrane was fabricated by wet phase inversion method. The aims of this research are to investigate the effect of different PVP concentrations in material composition on membrane morphology, membrane fluxes and seawater rejection. The results observed by SEM show the membrane composition PSf/PVP-1% has lower pore size with average pore size 8.4 nm while PSf/PVP-4% has highest pore size. Membrane PSf/PVP-1% has highest rejection (5.7%) and lower flux (2.43 L/cm2.hr) while PSf/PVP-4% has highest flux (6.44 L/cm2.hr) and lower rejection (0.87%). It is related with PVP contents in the membrane solution. In conclusion, increase PVP concentration will increase pore size, therefore it will increase flux while the rejection will decrease. © 2018, Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences. All rights reserved.