Blocking Mechanism of Ultrafiltration and Micellar-Enhanced Ultrafiltration Membrane for Dye Removal from Model Waste Water

Micellar-Enhanced Ultrafiltration Membrane (MEUF) is a development of ultrafiltration technology. In the MEUF, a surfactant having a concentration above its Critical Micelle Concentration is added into a solution containing small size solute. At that concentration, surfactant generates amphiphilic micelle having a diameter greater than membrane pore. The MEUF is one of promising technology to separate low molecular solute such as dye since the amphiphilic micelle will entrap the small solute. In this research, Ultrafiltration and MEUF were studied to remove reactive dyes from synthetic waste water and their membrane blocking mechanism were evaluated. Remazol dyes mixture with water were chosen as model dye-polluted waste water. The performance of both ultrafiltration and MEUF system were compared in the term of flux profile and rejection (dye concentration and Chemical Oxygen Demand). The result showed that permeate flux decline was more pronounced for the UF compared to the MEUF. Investigation of blocking mechanism was determined by using Hermia Model. It was found that the blocking mechanism for both Ultrafiltration and MEUF were dominated with Cake Formation Mechanism.