Development of highly flux antifouling RO Polyethersulfone membrane using woven support

Over the next decades, many regions worldwide will likely face dramatic changes in the availability of water. Desalination of sea water appears as the perfect mean to ensure water supply. To this end, membrane technologies represent a promising technology since they can achieve high levels of purification and are simple technically, energy efficient and typically scalable. However, membrane fouling, characterized by the deposition of solid material onto and into the membrane surface, is still the main problem of this treatment. In the present work, a novel highly flux antifouling membranes were prepared via phase inversion technique using Polyethersulfone (PES) blending with a nanomaterials solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Triethanol amine (TEA), inNMethyl- 2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent. The prepared polymeric solution was cast on woven fabric as supporting material. The SEM results prove that prepared membranes have dense top layer and small finger like structure in the middle, while the bottom layer is porous due to woven support. The prepared membranes exhibit excellent mechanical behavior. Desalination test was carried out using real samples from Mediterranean sea. The membranes performance results indicate that salt rejection reached 96% with high flux 134.9 Kg/m2h under operating pressure up to 40 bar.