Performances of biological aerated filter employing hollow fiber membrane segments of surface-improved poly (sulfone) as biofilm carriers.

Using the surface of poly (sulfone) hollow fiber membrane segments as grafted layer, the hydrophilic acrylamide chain was grafted on by UV-photoinduced grafting polymerization. The gained improvement of surface wettability for the modified membrane was tested by measuring the contact-angle as well as FTIR spectra. Then correlation between the hydrophilic ability of support material and the biofilm adherence ability was demonstrated by comparing the pollutant removal rates from urban wastewater via two identical lab-scale up-flow biological aerated filters, one employed the surface wettability modified poly (sulfone) hollow fiber membrane segment as biofilm carrier and the other employed unmodified membrane segment as biofilm carrier. The experimental results showed that under the conditions of influent flux 5 L/h, hydraulic retention time 9 h and gas to liquid ratio (G/L) 10:1, the removal rates of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonium nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) for the modified packing filter and the unmodified packing filter was averaged at 83.64% and 96.25%, respectively, with the former filter being 5%-20% more than the latter. The effluent concentration of COD, NH4(+)-N and turbidity for the modified packing filter was 25.25 mg/L, 2 mg/L and 8 NTU, respectively. Moreover, the ammonium nitrogen removal performance of the filter packing the modified PSF was compared with the other bioreactor packing of an efficient floating medium. The biomass test indicated that the modified membrane matrixes provided better specific adhesion (3310-5653 mg TSS/L support), which gave a mean of 1000 mg TSS/L more than the unmodified membrane did. In addition, the phenomenon of simultaneous denitrification on the inner surface of the support and nitrification on the outer surface was found in this work.

Ultravilolet-radiation-induced graft polymerization of acrylamide onto the melt-blown polypropylene filter element by dynamic method.

By dynamic method under UV irradiation, commercial melt-blown polypropylene (PPMB) filter element was modified with acrylamide (AAm) using benzophenone (BP) as initiator. Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope verified that polyacrylamide chain was grafted on the fiber surface of PPMB filter element. Elemental content analysis with energy dispersive X-ray of fibers revealed that the polymerization content in the inner part of filter element was relatively higher than that in the outer. Degree of grafting changed with initiator concentration, monomer concentration, reaction temperature and reached 2.6% at the reaction condition: CBP=0.06 mol/L, CAAm=2.0 mol/L, irradiation time: 80 min, temperature: 600 degrees C. Relative water flux altered with the hydrophilicity and pore size of filter element. In the antifouling test, the modified filter gave greater flux recovery (approximately 70%) after filtration of the water extract of Liuweidihuang, suggesting that the fouling layer was more easily reversible due to the hydrophilic nature of the modified filter.

Gas-initiation under UV and liquid-grafting polymerization on the surface of polysulfone hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane by dynamic method.

Using the inner-surface of polysulfone hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes as grafted layer, the method of gas-initiation and liquid-polymerization has been studied, which aimed to adjust the diameter of the pores in the membranes. The degree of polymerization varied with the changes of the parameters, such as irradiation time, monomer concentration, temperature and time of polymerization and soon. The results indicated that using benzophenone (BP) which is in a gaseous condition as photo-initiator, acrylamide as graft monomer, the polyacrylamide chain was grafted on the surface of membranes. After the surface membrane being modified, the water flux and retention altered, and thus it can be seen that the diameter of the pores in the membrane was altered. These experiments contribute to finding a new way to produce the hollow fiber membrane with the small pore size and are extraordinarily worth developing and studying.