Enhanced Non fouling Membranes for Water Purification and Recycling

描述(申请人提供)：许多工业过程产生难以处理的废水，必须经过净化才能排放。在许多情况下，废水不能得到经济有效的处理，因此往往大量水被用于土地处置、处置在地下或排放到我们的地表水供应中，从而对环境造成重大影响。这些水通常以溶解固体的形式含有高浓度的环境污染物。这项技术的应用包括金属精加工和电镀作业产生的废水的处理和回收、印刷电路板和半导体制造(电镀过程中使用的漂洗废水的处理和回收)、汽车制造(清洗和油漆所用的水的处理和回收)、食品和饮料(排放前用于重复使用和减少BOD的废水的浓缩)以及地下水和垃圾渗滤液(排放前去除盐类和重金属)。据观察，所有用于海水淡化和废水净化的传统膜工艺(特别是反渗透工艺)都受到膜污染的阻碍。使用渗透膜工艺处理废水时，通常需要对水进行预处理，以保护膜不受有机污染、矿物结垢和化学降解的影响。在该项目中，Lynntech建议开发一种先进的渗透膜技术，通过在商用醋酸纤维素渗透膜上涂覆一层石墨烯氧化物和超亲水纳米颗粒来改进其抗污染性能。这种新的膜将被应用到FO净化系统中，这将极大地影响这项技术，因为它最大限度地减少了膜污染和矿物结垢，减少了系统维护和组件消耗，同时提高了膜的抗化学降解能力。我们的具体目标是展示我们的新膜增强的耐久性和无污染性质。这些目标包括(1)均匀稳定地将氧化石墨烯膜应用于醋酸纤维渗透膜，(2)超亲水纳米颗粒的合成及其在膜上氧化石墨烯膜上的应用，以及(3)利用含挑战污染物的水的正向渗透净水技术对氧化石墨烯膜进行测试。特定目标的成功完成将产生具有增强的耐用性、寿命和抗污染特性的渗透膜。此外，使用这些增强的防污染膜实施净化系统有可能极大地减少废水净化系统中的膜污染，减少必要的维护，同时保持或提高较高的净化标准。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many industrial processes produce difficult to treat wastewater that must be purified before being discharged. In many cases, the wastewater cannot be treated cost effectively and often massive quantities of water are therefore land-applied for disposal, disposed of underground, or discharged into our surface water supply leading to a significant impact on the environment. This water typically contains high concentrations of environmental contaminates in the form of dissolved solids. Applications for this technology include the treatment and recycling of wastewaters generated from metal finishing and plating operations, printed circuit board and semiconductor manufacturing (treatment and recycling of rinse waters used in electroplating processes), automotive manufacturing (treatment and recycling of water used for cleaning and painting), food and beverage (concentration of wastewater for reuse and reduction of BODs prior to discharge), as well as groundwater and landfill leachate (removal of salts and heavy metals prior to discharge). It has been observed that all conventional membrane processes used for desalination and wastewater purification (specifically reverse osmosis processes) are hampered by membrane fouling. When treating wastewater using an osmosis membrane process pretreatment of the water is typically necessary to protect the membrane from organic fouling, mineral scaling, and chemical degradation. In this project, Lynntech proposes to develop an advanced osmosis membrane technology, with greatly improved antifouling characteristics, by modifying commercial cellulose acetate osmosis membranes coated with a layer of graphene oxide and superhydrophilic nanoparticles. This new membrane will then be implemented into a FO purification system, which will greatly impact this technology by minimizing membrane fouling and mineral scaling, reducing system maintenance and component consumables while increasing the membrane's resistance to chemical degradation. Our specific aims are devised to demonstrate the enhanced durability and non-fouling nature of our new membranes. These aims include (1) the uniform and stable application of graphene oxide films to cellulose acetate osmosis membranes, (2) the synthesis of superhydrophilic nanoparticles and their application to the graphene oxide films on the membrane, and (3) the testing of the membrane using forward osmosis water purification techniques of water containing challenge contaminates. Successful completion of the specific aims will yield osmosis membranes with enhanced durability, longevity, and anti-fouling characteristics. Furthermore, the implementation of purification systems with these enhanced anti-fouling membranes have the potential to greatly reduce the membrane fouling within a wastewater purification system, reducing the necessary maintenance while maintaining or improving high purification standards.