Development of low-pressure polymeric membrane incorporated with powdered activated carbon and nanosilica for groundwater applications

Groundwater has become a vital alternate supply of freshwater, which has now frequently been contaminated with high iron and lead levels that are harmful to human health and agriculture. Hence, various modifications on membrane surfaces are fabricated in this study to improve the membrane's performance. Low-pressure PES polymeric membranes are made by combining polyether sulfone (PES) as the polymer, N-methyl-2pyrrolidone (NMP) as the solvent, and nano-silica (SiO2) and powdered activated carbon (PAC) as additives. The membranes’ performance is tested multiple times to evaluate for their pure water permeation, groundwater filtration flux, the effectiveness of groundwater turbidity, colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD), iron, and lead removal. Results showed that the 5.0 wt.% PES-PAC membrane has the best filtering permeate and flux volume along with the highest removal efficiency for turbidity, colour, COD iron, and lead removal, which are 99.33%, 96.15 %, 96%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. All low-pressure membrane systems successfully reduced the iron concentration in groundwater to the irrigation water standards. Whereas, the 5.0 wt% PES-PAC and 5.0 wt% PES-SiO2 membranes can meet the lead requirements for agricultural water. The membrane with 5.0 wt% PES-PAC fulfils the lead content requirement after treatment for drinking water quality showing the membrane with PAC incorporation as an alternative water treatment technology to ensure water safety. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.