MIL-101(Cr) incorporated hollow fiber membrane for rubber wastewater treatment using membrane bioreactor

The hollow fiber (HF) membrane in this study was modified using polyethersulfone (PES) and MIL-101(Cr) metal-organic framework (MOF) for the treatment of synthetic rubber effluent using an aerobic submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR). The phase inversion and wet spinning techniques were used for membrane preparation and to manufacture the MOF-incorporated HF membranes, respectively. The manufactured HF membranes were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR-KBR), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Tensile Strength (TS), and Water Contact Angle (WCA) studies. The MIL-101(Cr)/PES HF membrane has increased porosity by 14%, surface roughness increased by 38%, and surface hydrophilicity increased by 15% compared to the pure PES HF membrane. The results demonstrated that the higher hydrophilicity of the metal-organic framework (MOF) MIL-101(Cr) positively affected the HF membrane surface properties and performance in the bioreactor. Additionally, it was shown that the removal efficiency for total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were 45.5%, 65.6%, 90%, and 94% respectively.