Influences of Permeate Solution and Feed pH on Enhancement of Ammonia Recovery from Wastewater by Negatively Charged PTFE Membranes in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation Operation

This research investigated the feasibility of enhancing ammonia recovery from wastewater using a negatively charged poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) membrane in a direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system. The influences of phosphate solution types (as the permeate solutions) and feed pH on ammonia recovery were analyzed. Three types of permeate solutions -DI water and two types of phosphate solutions (H3PO4 and KH2PO4)-were investigated for recovery of ammonia gas on the permeate side. From the obtained results, the H3PO4 solution was found to be the most suitable permeate solution to recover ammonia gas in the DCMD operation with the highest overall ammonia mass transfer coefficient of 7.4 x 10-5 m/s, compared to values of 1.2 x 10-5 and 2.4 x 10-5 m/s for DI water and KH2PO4 solution, respectively. Moreover, an increase in the H3PO4 concentration from 0.3 to 0.5 M in the permeate solution also could significantly enhance ammonia recovery. With an increase in the feed pH from 10.0 to 11.8, the ammonia recovery could be enhanced to 92.98% at a pH of 11.8. Liquid ammonium phosphate fertilizer could be produced by the DCMD system with the use of 0.5 M H3PO4 solution. Therefore, the DCMD process using a negatively charged PTFE membrane with an appropriate permeate solution is one of the challenging processes for ammonia recovery from wastewater to promote the circular economy concept.

Automated summary

This study investigated the feasibility of enhancing ammonia recovery from wastewater using a negatively charged PTFE membrane in a DCMD system. The results showed that H3PO4 solution was the most suitable permeate solution, and increasing the concentration of H3PO4 and the feed pH significantly improved ammonia recovery.