Effects of Chemical Cleaning on the Ageing of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Microfiltration and Ultrafiltration Membranes Fouled with Organic and Inorganic Matter

Abstract

Herein, the effects of cleaning with sodium hydroxide and citric acid solutions as cleaning reagents on the changes in the properties of two hollow-fiber PVDF microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes fouled with organic and inorganic matter were investigated. Accelerated membrane ageing was induced by use of high concentrations of tannic acid and iron oxide (Fe2O3) particles in the feed water; these conditions were kept with different membrane soaking times to observe temporal effects. It was found that tannic acid molecules adsorb onto the membrane surface that results in changes in surface characteristics, particularly surface functional groups that are responsible for enhancing membrane’s hydrophilicity. Experimental results demonstrate that NaOH had a stronger effect on the tensile strength and surface chemistry of the fouled MF and UF membranes than citric acid. Prediction of lifetime by an exponential (decay) model confirmed that the UF membrane cleaned with NaOH would be aged within about 1.8 years and the MF membrane after about 5 years, at cleaning every 15 days, downtime 2 h per cleaning, when a 10% tensile strength decrease against the original membrane is allowed.