Comprehensive Study of Different Multifunctional Membranes with Fenton Oxidation and Ultrafiltration for Real Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Integrating catalytic oxidation and ultrafiltration inmultifunctionalmembranes seems a promising method to strengthen wastewater treatment,and multiple strategies developed for further enhancement of multifunctionalmembranes have been focused upon recently. However, a comprehensiveevaluation of multifunctional membranes and their strengthened variantscompared with separate oxidation and ultrafiltration units using realindustrial wastewater is still absent. In this study, a traditionalmultifunctional membrane and multifunctional membranes strengthenedby catalyst enhancement, catalyst loading enhancement, and oxidation/ultrafiltrationsequence optimization were synthesized for the real industrial wastewatertreatment, compared with separate units of oxidation and ultrafiltration.The membrane structure was characterized by various methods, treatmentefficiency and membrane fouling were evaluated, and stability forlong-term operation was investigated by analysis of the decontaminationperformance decline and membrane characterization. The results indicatethat direct immobilization of the catalyst in an ultrafiltration membranemight sacrifice the decontamination performance. Strengthening themultifunctional membrane by catalyst activity and catalyst loadingenhancement could improve decontamination and antifouling performance,while it would reduce the stability due to high oxidative activityon the membrane matrix. Optimizing the sequence of ultrafiltrationbefore catalytic oxidation in the multifunctional membrane could efficientlyimprove the treatment efficiency and stability, while the antifoulingperformance would be weakened greatly. Multifunctional membrane developmentcan strengthen wastewater treatment indeed in some respects, but theirshortcomings should be carefully considered as well. We believe thisstudy gives a new understanding on multifunctional catalytic oxidationand ultrafiltration membrane-based systems, and provides guidanceregarding their practical application for wastewater treatment.

Automated summary

The integration of catalytic oxidation and ultrafiltration in multifunctional membranes shows promise for enhancing wastewater treatment. Various strategies for further improving these membranes have been developed recently. However, a comprehensive evaluation of multifunctional membranes and their strengthened variants compared to separate oxidation and ultrafiltration units using real industrial wastewater has not been conducted.