Application of patterned membranes for water treatment

Water treatment, based on membrane technology is an energy-efficient way to alleviate drinking water scarcity and reutilize wastewater for irrigation and household purposes. The versatility of membrane technology in terms of achieving different pore sizes has allowed its implementation in removing a large range of pollutants including various bacteria, organic constituents, and salts. Fouling of the membranes due to the accumulation of these pollutants on the membrane surface or within pores is however a major concern in industrial water treatment plants. Membrane fouling can lead to excessive membrane cleaning requirements thereby increasing the operational costs and decreasing membrane lifespan. This thesis investigated the optimum preparation of micro-level corrugations via the newly proposed method namely spray-modified non-solvent induced phase separation (s-NIPS) and their subsequent potential in reducing membrane fouling during different membrane-based water treatment applications. For energy and cost-efficient water treatment operations, patterned membranes based on different polymeric materials were introduced as anti-fouling microfiltration, ultrafiltration, forward osmosis, and nanofiltration membranes. s-NIPS based patterned membranes will be prepared with different polymer systems to reduce membrane fouling and increase membrane performance. Further membrane characterizations, computational fluid dynamics and fouling performance tests will demonstrate the dominant anti-fouling mechanism of these patterned membranes.