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Depositing lignin on membrane surfaces for simultaneously upgraded reverse osmosis performances: An upscalable route
Author(s) -
Zhang Feng,
Wu Yaping,
Li Weixing,
Xing Weihong,
Wang Yong
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.15628
Subject(s) - membrane , reverse osmosis , lignin , chemical engineering , permeation , fouling , chemistry , materials science , membrane fouling , surface roughness , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering , biochemistry
Reverse osmosis (RO) have been widely used to produce clean water and there is a strong need to enhance their permeability at no sacrifice of their other performances, e.g., selectivity. We deposit low‐cost biopolymer, lignin, onto the surface of RO membranes by a simple filtration method. Lignin is deposited to the membrane surface via both hydrogen bonding and π‐π interaction. Lignin deposition reduces the surface roughness of the membrane and enhances its negatively charging, while the surface hydrophilicity is maintained. Surprisingly, water permeation, salt rejection, and fouling resistance of the lignin‐deposited membranes are simultaneously improved. More importantly, we demonstrate that this deposition method can be easily extended to modify commercial RO membrane modules, indicating the excellent upscalability of this method. We use the lignin‐deposited membranes to treat real effluents of dyeing and papermaking and they perform much better than the virgin, unmodified membranes. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 63: 2221–2231, 2017