Composite Membrane and Evaluation on Separation Oil/Water

The generation of wastewater contaminated with organic compounds, release or spill into these water bodies can lead to serious environmental problems. The removal of chemical pollutants in water presents itself as one of the central issues regarding the issue of environmental remediation. In this sense, membranes, haves gained increasing importance in the environmental area. This present study aims to develop a composite membrane using UHMWPE/LDPE/CTAC-HGC to be used for oil/water separation of wastewater effluents. The polymeric membrane and composite membrane were prepared by uniaxial dry compaction and sintering. Both hard green clay (HGC) and hard green clay organophilized with cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC-HGC) were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). UHMWPE, polymeric membrane and composite membrane were characterized by XRD and SEM. The water flux through the composite membrane was evaluated using pure water as a permeate. The potential of the composite membrane to separate oil-water emulsions was tested. The composite membrane showed excellent removal of the oil, exhibiting removal of more than 99.60 %, evidencing the process of composite membrane separation as an alternative technology for the treatment of oil.