Experimental investigation of inorganic nanofiltration membranes prepared by atomic layer deposition and sol-gel methods for saltless water softening
by Gordon N. Nangmenyi; Xiu Lin; Ernie Lee; Chris Yuan
International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management (IJETM), Vol. 16, No. 1/2, 2013

Abstract: This study explored saltless water softening with inorganic Nanofiltration (NF) membranes prepared by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and a Tetraorthosilicate (TEOS) sol-gel process applied by the slip cast method. The experimental investigations were performed on different material-based inorganic NF membranes, including titanium dioxide (TiO₂), alumina (Al₂O₃), silver (Ag) and iron oxide (Fe₂O₃). The experimental results demonstrated that saltless water softening can be achieved with high flux through the viable rejection of Ca²⁺ with an initial rate between 7.1% and 34.1% in a single pass flow through filter in a solution of 0.5 g L⁻¹ CaCl₂ at neutral pH. A maximum rejection of 28.7% and 29.5% was achieved for Ca²⁺ at pH 4 and pH 10, respectively. The highest hardness rejection was achieved with a 25% waste water volume. In the recirculating loop tests with the same solution, a rejection rate of 9% was achieved within 15 min at a flow rate of 0.3 L min⁻¹.

Online publication date: Wed, 17-Sep-2014

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