In situ coupling of electrochemical oxidation and membrane filtration processes for simultaneous decontamination and membrane fouling mitigation

Intimate coupling electrochemical oxidation (EO) and filtration using a reactive electrochemical membrane (REM) has shown promising results in the mineralization of refractory pollutants. In this work, a novel flow-through electrochemical membrane filtration (FEMF) process based on the EO and membrane filtration processes was designed to simultaneously degrade pollutants and mitigate membrane fouling. A flexible activated carbon fiber felt (ACFF) with excellent adsorptive property and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane were combined and functioned as the REM anode (ACFF/M). At a cell voltage of 3.0 V, the aniline (AN) removal efficiency and observed reaction rate constant (kobs) of the FEMF process were 97.5% and 3.36 × 10-2 min−1, respectively. The adsorptive property of the ACFF/M anode promoted the transfer of pollutants from the bulk solution to the electroactive region, which significantly enhanced the AN removal efficiency and reduced the specific energy consumption (SEC, 1.51 kWh/kg). Meanwhile, the in-situ decomposition of adsorbed-pollutants by direct electron transfer (DET) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) can renovate the adsorptive capacity of the ACFF/M anode. This FEMF process also showed good performance in the mitigation of membrane fouling. Our findings highlight the potential of the FEMF process for the cost-effective treatment of wastewater containing organic pollutants.