Ultrafiltration and Nanofiltration for the Removal of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds from Water: The Effect of Operating Pressure on Electrostatic Solute—Membrane Interactions

Author:

Giacobbo Alexandre12ORCID,Pasqualotto Isabella Franco1,Machado Filho Rafael Cabeleira de Coronel1,Minhalma Miguel23,Bernardes Andréa Moura1ORCID,Pinho Maria Norberta de24ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Post-Graduation Program in Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (PPGE3M), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves n. 9500, Porto Alegre 91509-900, Brazil

2. Centre of Physics and Engineering of Advanced Materials (CeFEMA), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, n. 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

3. Chemical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Rua Conselheiro Emídio Navarro, 1, 1959-007 Lisboa, Portugal

4. Chemical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, n. 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract

The present work investigates nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF) for the removal of three widely used pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), namely atenolol, sulfamethoxazole, and rosuvastatin. Four membranes, two polyamide NF membranes (NF90 and NF270) and two polyethersulfone UF membranes (XT and ST), were evaluated in terms of productivity (permeate flux) and selectivity (rejection of PhACs) at pressures from 2 to 8 bar. Although the UF membranes have a much higher molecular weight cut-off (1000 and 10,000 Da), when compared to the molecular weight of the PhACs (253–482 Da), moderate rejections were observed. For UF, rejections were dependent on the molecular weight and charge of the PhACs, membrane molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), and operating pressure, demonstrating that electrostatic interactions play an important role in the removal of PhACs, especially at low operating pressures. On the other hand, both NF membranes displayed high rejections for all PhACs studied (75–98%). Hence, considering the optimal operating conditions, the NF270 membrane (MWCO = 400 Da) presented the best performance, achieving permeate fluxes of about 100 kg h−1 m−2 and rejections above 80% at a pressure of 8 bar, that is, a productivity of about twice that of the NF90 membrane (MWCO = 200 Da). Therefore, NF270 was the most suitable membrane for this application, although the tight UF membranes under low operating pressures displayed satisfactory results.

Funder

Brazilian funding agencies

Portuguese funding agency, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia

LaPMET-Associate Laboratory of Physics for Materials and Emergent Technologies

Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarollo

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Filtration and Separation,Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous),Process Chemistry and Technology

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