| Affiliation: | 1. University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Mechanical Process Engineering and Water Technology, Lotharstraße 1, 47057 Duisburg, Germany;2. University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Technical Chemistry II, Universitätsstraße 7, 45141 Essen, Germany;3. inge GmbH – DuPont, Flurstraße 27, 86926 Greifenberg, Germany;4. Fayoum University, Physics Department, Environmental and Smart Technology Group (ESGT), Faculty of Science, 63514 Fayoum, Egypt
Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Materials Science & Engineering Department, School of Innovative Design Engineering, 179, New Borg El-Arab City, 21934 Alexandria, Egypt |
| Abstract: | Reusing wastewater from oil-related industries is becoming increasingly important, especially in water-stressed oil-producing countries. Before oily wastewater can be discharged or reused, it must be properly treated, e.g., by membrane-based processes like ultrafiltration. A major issue of the applied membranes is their high fouling propensity. This paper reports on mitigating fouling inside ready-to-use ultrafiltration hollow-fiber modules used in a polishing step in oil/water separation. For this purpose, in-situ polyzwitterionic hydrogel coating was applied. The membrane performance was tested with oil nano-emulsions using a mini-plant system. The main factors influencing fouling were systematically investigated using statistical design of experiments. |
