Membrane Development for Optimized Cross-Flow Oil/Water Emulsion Filtration

Cross-flow membrane filtration has been widely adopted for oil/water emulsion management due to its economic benefits of oil and water recovery. However, this technology requires large energy to generate the pressure that drives its overall performances. Thus, the cost of the energy strongly affected the economics of the technology. Thanks to the advent of membrane development via membrane surface chemistry and surface structure modification that offered the best option for enhancing the overall membrane performances. And therefore, optimizes the energy consumption of the technology. Raising the cast film exposure period from 0 to 60 sec, the membrane surface chemistry was improved due to preservation of substantial polyethylene glycol (PEG) additive within the membrane matrix from 70.28 ± 0.61o to 57.72 ± 0.61o. Thus, the hydraulic performance was enhanced from 45.2 ± 0.4 to 139.5 ± 0.8 L m-2 hr-1 bar-1. Whereas the system energy consumption was reduced from 0.028 kWh/m3 to 0.017 kWh/ m3, this accounted for up to 39% energy saving. Moreover, by imposing feed turbulence flow via patterning the membrane surface by depositing it onto a wavy flow channel. The membrane hydraulic and energy saving performances were further enhanced by up to 29% and 58% respectively. The results of this study open up a new avenue for widespread industrial adoption of membrane technology even at the era of energy crisis.