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Abstract
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Today, membrane separation technology is one of the effect-ive procedure to treat of oil refinery wastewater due to the cost-effectiveness, low energy consumption, and lack of chem-ical additives. However, decreasing in membrane fouling and using low cost polymer for preparation of membrane are important to minimize the operation costs. This study presents the progress of creating nanocomposite membranes using polyvinyl chloride/carbon nanotube doped with silver (PVC/ CNT-d-Ag) to purify oil refinery wastewater. It was observed that adding 1 wt.% of nanoparticles notably enhanced the water contact angle and porosity, from 68.5� to 45� and from 85.5% to 93.6%, respectively. Also, the nanocomposite mem-brane exhibited higher thermal stability than neat PVC mem-brane. In the field emission scanning electron microscope images, it was observed that more extensive channels and porous structures were formed in the membrane structure when CNT-d-Ag nanoparticles were used. The results of filter-ing oil refinery wastewater showed that adding 1 wt.% of nanoparticles decreased the irreversible fouling ratio from 31.8% to 7.2% and increased the flux recovery ratio from 69.3% to 92.8%. The nanocomposite membrane performed better, reducing the total organic carbon from 86.5 mg/L to 11.1 mg/L.
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