Preparation and Characterization of Polysulfone/Polyphenylsulfone/Titanium Dioxide Composite Ultrafiltration Membranes for Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the largest pollutant discharged into the rivers of Malaysia. An efficient treatment system is highly desirable in palm oil mills in order to control the effluent discharged to any water bodies. In this study, composite ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were successufully prepared by incorporating polysulfone (PSF)/polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) blend membranes with inorganic TiO 2 nanoparticles in the range of 0–4 wt%. Prior to POME treatment process, the properties of the resulting membranes were first characterized with respect to pure water flux, BSA rejection, hydrophilicity and structural morphologies. Of the membranes tested, it is found that membrane without TiO 2 incorporation demonstrated the highest pure water flux, i.e. 82.81 L/m 2 h with BSA rejection of 98% when tested at 2 bar.  The decreasing water flux with increasing TiO 2 loading in the membrane is mainly due to the high viscosity of the dope solution which delayed the phase inversion process and resulted in reduced surface pore size. For the POME treatment process, the results showed that UF membrane could effectively treat the wastewater by removing up to 87% BOD 3 , 90% COD and almost complete elimination of turbidity.