Modified polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane for the treatment of tannery wastewater

A large amount of water can be recycled from the effluent generated by tannery industries. In this work, the treatment of tannery wastewater was investigated using polyethersulfone (PES) membranes modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and calcium chloride (CaCl2). Membranes were prepared through the phase inversion method by adding various amounts of CaCl2 to PES and PEG respectively. The effect of CaCl2 on the characteristics of blend membranes such as morphology, water uptake, porosity, pure water permeability and hydrophilicity was investigated. Studies indicated that CaCl2 addition had modified the membrane properties considerably. Tannery wastewater was efficiently treated using the modified PES membranes. Permeability of wastewater was considerably increased while the CaCl2 was incorporated in the PES polymer matrix. All modified PES membranes showed moderate removal of biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total dissolved solids, chlorides, sulphates, oil and grease for the tannery effluents. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.